Vacant homes, also known as “zombie properties,” remain a small part of the U.S. housing market, easing fears of a foreclosure crisis when the pandemic-induced moratorium ends.
Data released on Thursday to us Its “Vacant Properties and Zombie Foreclosures Report for the Second Quarter of 2024” shows that approximately 1.29 million residential properties in the United States (1.3% of the existing inventory) are vacant. This ratio remains unchanged from the first quarter of 2024.
Of those pending foreclosures, 6,945 properties are vacant due to “zombie foreclosures,” homes that have been abandoned by their owners. According to Attom, this figure dropped 5.4% quarter-on-quarter and 20.6% year-on-year.
Pre-foreclosure vacancies at lowest level since early 2021
These vacant pre-foreclosure homes account for one in every 14,724 homes nationwide, the lowest level since early 2021.
Even before the federal foreclosure moratorium ended on July 31, 2021, some experts were calling for a sharp drop in home prices and the seizure of many properties because borrowers were unable to repay their mortgages. Nearly three years later, the data shows a very different trend.
“Predictions of a massive increase in foreclosures following the moratorium and a potential surge in zombie properties never materialized. In fact, the opposite has been true, as abandoned homes in foreclosures have become increasingly difficult to find across the country ,” Attom CEO Rob Barber said in a statement.
“There have been some signs over the past year that the long boom in the U.S. housing market is giving back some of its gains, which could lead to lower stocks and more foreclosures. We are far from losing zombie properties almost from the housing market landscape. benefits that disappear.
core logic Data released this week supports that claim, as March foreclosures affected 0.3% of all U.S. mortgages, a share that has not changed in more than two years. The national delinquency rate, which measures the proportion of loans that are at least 30 days past due, hit 2.8% for the third consecutive month.
Among all states, the highest residential property vacancy rates in the second quarter of 2024 were Oklahoma (2.27%), Kansas (2.18%), Missouri (2.06%), Alabama (2.04%) and Michigan (2.02%).
The lowest vacancy rates are in New Hampshire (0.36%), New Jersey (0.41%), Vermont (0.44%), Idaho (0.47%) and California (0.64%).
Among the 168 metropolitan areas analyzed by Attom, the highest zombie foreclosure rate in the second quarter of 2024 was in Peoria, Illinois, at 18.6%. St. Louis leads the largest metros at 7.8 percent.
