Roughly 1.4 million residential properties were vacant in the fourth quarter, representing 1.3% or one in 77 homes, according to the latest Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report from ATTOM. This level is nearly the same as the third quarter and is up just slightly from one year ago. The report also noted that 215,601 residential properties were in the process of foreclosure in the fourth quarter, down 3.3% from the third quarter and down 32.8% from the fourth quarter of 2023.
Among those pre-foreclosure properties, about 7,100 sit vacant as zombie foreclosures in the fourth quarter, slightly above the number in the prior quarter but down 20.2% from a year ago. A total of 7,109 residential properties facing possible foreclosure have been vacated by their owners nationwide in the fourth quarter, up 1.5% from 7,007 in the third quarter but down from 8,903 in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The number of zombie properties has gone up quarterly in 30 states – usually increasing by less than 20. The number either declined or stayed unchanged in 20 states.
“The near-total disappearance of zombie foreclosures has been and still is one of the more subtle, but important benefits of the country’s soaring housing market,” said ATTOM CEO Rob Barber. “Those properties have gone from a plague in many areas of the U.S. following the Great Recession of the late 2000s, when millions of homes fell into foreclosure, to a distant memory in most communities today. That’s unlikely to change much in the near future given that record home prices are keeping home-equity levels at historic highs and foreclosures cases dropping. On top of that, the supply of homes is so tight that even when a property is abandoned, buyers are more likely to swoop in and pick it up.”
Photo courtesy of The Criterion Channel
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