Foreclosures Surge Again

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Oct 21, 10:30AM EDT

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The last time foreclosures were brutal was during the housing crisis, particularly in 2007 and 2008. Subprime mortgages drove default in some markets to double digits, particularly in Nevada, California, and Florida. In the last few decades, the national figure has fallen to a fraction of a percent. The number is starting to rise again.

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ATTOM, a real estate market analytics data company, publishes a foreclosure study several times a year. The most recent is titled “U.S. Foreclosure Activity Shows Continued Rise In Third Quarter, Approaching Levels Seen Before Pandemic.” Foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions, or bank repossessions) rose 34% from a year ago to 124,539 U.S. properties. “Foreclosures are on the rise again this quarter, as indicated by our latest foreclosure numbers,” according to Rob Barber, the CEO of ATTOM.

Foreclosure start rates vary significantly around the country. Nationally, foreclosure start filings were made on one out of 1,121 homes. This is based on an analysis of 223 metro areas. Broken out by state, New Jersey’s rate was one in every 595 housing units. For South Carolina, it was one in every 730. For Delaware, it was one in every 739, For Nevada, it was one in every 763, and Maryland, it was one in every 780.

The numbers are even worse than those in some cities. In Houston, TX, it was one in every 371 housing units. For Atlantic City, NJ, the figure was one in every 453. For Cleveland, OH, it was one in every 459. For Bakersfield, CA, it was one in every 465, and for Columbia, SC, it was one in every 503.

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Notably, in Atlantic City and Cleveland, the pattern of poor cities and housing defaults may hold true. However, the trend is broken because Houston is on the list.

ATTOM says these numbers may get worse, because of the high interest rates on variable-rate mortgages. And, as many economists say, there may be a recession. (These are 30 American cities with the most foreclosures.)

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.