Zombie Foreclosures Shrinking #MABA #MassachusettsRealEstate #MaBuyerAgent #FirstTimeHomeBuyers

Zombie Foreclosures Shrinking MABA MassachusettsRealEstate MaBuyerAgent FirstTimeHomeBuyers

Releasing its 2024 second-quarter Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, ATTOM Data has revealed that that one point three million (or one million two hundred eight nine thousand and three hundred eighty seven to be exact) residential properties in the country sit vacant. This figure, while significant, represents one point three percent of properties or to put it another way, one in seventy nine homes; this number has essentially remained the same from the first quarter of 2024. 

The report analyzes publicly recorded real estate data collected by ATTOM including foreclosure status, equity and owner-occupancy status matched against monthly updated vacancy data. 

In terms of foreclosures, the report stated that two hundred thirty seven thousand and two hundred and eight residential dwellings throughout the country are in the process of active foreclosure during the second quarter, down two point three percent from the first quarter of the year and down twenty three point nine percent year-over-year. 

Foreclosure activity has declined this year following a surge in cases that hit after a nationwide moratorium on lenders pursuing delinquent homeowners, imposed during the Coronavirus pandemic, was lifted in the middle of 2021. 

Among those pre-foreclosure properties are about six thousand nine hundred and forty five sitting vacant as zombie foreclosures (pre-foreclosure properties abandoned by owners) in the second quarter of 2024. That figure is also down from the prior quarter, by five point four percent, and down twenty point six percent from a year ago. 

Zombie homes themselves only account for a fraction of the total housing stock the current report from ATTOM puts the number at one in fourteen thousand seven hundred and twenty four homes, a ratio that is down form one in thirteen thousand nine hundred and five during the first quarter and one in eleven thousand five hundred and seventy seven year-over-year. Zombie foreclosures numbers remain so small that most neighborhoods around the country face little or no threat of the blight and decay those homes can spread. 

The portion of pre-foreclosure properties that have been abandoned into zombie status, meanwhile, also went down slightly, from three percent in the first quarter of 2024 to two point nine percent in the current quarter. 

“Predictions of a huge spike in foreclosures after the moratorium, with the potential for a surge in zombie properties, never came true. Indeed, the opposite has happened, as abandoned homes in foreclosure continue to get harder and harder to find around the country,” said Rob Barber, ATTOM’s CEO. “Some signs have popped up over the past year that the long U.S. housing market boom is giving back some of its gains, which could lead to declining equity and more foreclosures. We are still far from losing the benefit of having zombie properties nearly disappear from the housing market landscape.” 

The dip in the number of zombie properties during the second quarter comes as the housing market remains buoyed by twelve years of price increases despite the recent markers of a slowdown. 

The nationwide median home value dropped quarterly in the early months of 2024 by four percent, to $330,000, but was still up three percent from a year earlier, according to ATTOM’s home sales analysis. It has increased every year since 2012, more than doubling during that time. Those gains have fueled a historic rise in homeowner wealth to the point where almost ninety five percent of owners paying off mortgages have at least some equity built up and nearly fifty percent owe less than half the estimated value of their properties. 

Zombie foreclosures drop in more than half the country, remaining a non-issue in most neighborhoods 

A total of six thousand nine hundred and forty five residential properties facing possible foreclosure have been vacated by their owners nationwide in the second quarter of 2024, down from seven thousand three hundred and thirty eight in the first quarter of 2024 and eight thousand seven hundred and fifty two in the second quarter of 2023. The number of zombie properties has decreased quarterly in thirty states and annually in thirty eight. 

As those numbers keep dwindling, the biggest decreases from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2024 in states with at least fifty zombie homes are in Ohio (zombie properties down twenty two percent, from five hundred and ninety seven to four hundred and sixty six), Maryland (down seventeen percent, from one hundred and four to eighty six), South Carolina (down fourteen percent, from seventy four to sixty four), California (down thirteen percent, from three hundred and ten to two hundred and sixty nine), and North Carolina (down twelve percent, from sixty seven to fifty nine). 

The only quarterly increases among states with at least fifty zombie foreclosures are in Massachusetts (zombie properties up twelve percent, from sixty eight to seventy six) and Illinois (up one percent, from seven hundred and nineteen to seven hundred and twenty four). 

Click here for the report in its entirety. 

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