Your inside source for real estate, development and construction information serving the counties of Mecklenburg, Union & Iredell VOLUME 105 NUMBER 8 ■ MECKTIMES.COM
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U.S. Foreclosure Activity Drops To An All-time Low In 2021
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ATTOM has released its Year-End 2021 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings— default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 151,153 U.S. properties in 2021, down 29 percent from 2020 and down 95 percent from a peak of nearly 2.9 million in 2010, to the lowest level since tracking began in 2005. Those 151,153 properties with foreclosure filings in 2021 represented 0.11 percent of all U.S. housing units, down from 0.16 percent in 2020 and down from a peak of 2.23 percent in 2010. “The COVID-19 foreclosure tsunami that some people had anticipated is clearly not happening,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president at RealtyTrac,
an ATTOM company. “Government and mortgage industry efforts have prevented millions of unnecessary foreclosures, and while it’s likely that we’ll see a slight increase in the first quarter, we probably won’t see foreclosure activity back to normal levels before the end of 2022.” ATTOM’s year-end foreclosure report provides a unique count of properties with a foreclosure filing during the year based on publicly recorded and published foreclosure filings collected in more than 3,000 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 99 percent of the U.S. population, also available for license or customized reporting. See full methodology below. The report also includes new data for
December 2021, showing there were 17,971 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings, down 8 percent from the previous month but up 65 percent from a year ago. Bank repossessions decrease 98 percent since their peak in 2010 Lenders repossessed 25,662 properties through foreclosure (REO) in 2021, down 49 percent from 2020 and down 98 percent from a peak of 1,050,500 in 2010, to the lowest level as far back as data is available — 2006. “We believe that repossessions will continue to be lower than normal throughout 2022,” Sharga noted. “Homeowners have a record amount of equity – over $23 trillion – and over 87 percent of homeowners
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“Homeowners have a record amount of equity – over $23 trillion – and over 87 percent of homeowners in foreclosure have positive equity. This means that most borrowers will have an opportunity to sell their house at a profit rather than lose everything to a foreclosure auction” Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac
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