In July 2023, foreclosure activity in the U.S. displayed some interesting trends and shifts. Foreclosure started to decrease 9% in July from the previous month but remained up for the first half of the year over 2022.
For the first six months of this year, 185,580 properties filed for foreclosure nationwide—a 13% increase from last year and a whopping 185% leap from two years ago, when COVID-19-related restrictions were still in place. This shows that foreclosures are returning to pre-pandemic levels. The states with the highest rates of foreclosure starts for this time frame were Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland. In Illinois, one in every 397 housing units had a foreclosure filing during the first half of 2023. California and Florida had more total foreclosure filings than any other state, with 17,914 and 18,530, respectively.
Among metro areas with at least 200,000 people, those with the worst rates of foreclosure starts for this time frame were Cleveland; Atlantic City; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Rockford, Illinois; Jacksonville; Peoria, Illinois; Indianapolis; Memphis; Dayton, Ohio; and Toledo (ATTOM) (HousingWire). The average time to complete a foreclosure hit an all-time high in Q2 2023: 1,212 days nationwide. These figures underscore the lingering economic woes wrought by COVID-19 across various states and the uneven recovery patterns within local housing markets still grappling with foreclosed properties.