Foreclosure Starts Decrease Eleven Percent From a Year Ago

Todd Teta

IRVINE, CA— ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database and first property data provider of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), released its Q1 2020 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 156,253 U.S. properties with a foreclosure filing during the first quarter of 2020, up 42 percent from the previous quarter but down 3 percent from a year ago.

The report also shows a total of 46,800 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in March 2020, down 3 percent from the previous month and down 20 percent from March 2019 — the third consecutive month with a year-over-year decrease in U.S. foreclosure activity.

"As foreclosure activity across the country continued to decline in March, contributing to a run of quarterly declines, the number of filings remains just one-sixth of what it was following the Great Recession a decade ago," said Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions. 

"This latest sign of the strong national housing market, however, comes with a huge caveat because it captures the pivotal month when millions of Americans started losing their jobs because of the economic fallout connected to the Coronavirus pandemic

"Banks are temporarily holding off on foreclosures and we expect this will bring foreclosures even lower for at least the next few quarters.  

"However, with unemployment and other distress factors hitting the economy now, the numbers could rise significantly later this year and into next, depending on how many people can't keep up with their payments.”

For a detailed analysis of the report, please contact:

Christine Stricker

949.748.8428

christine.stricker@attomdata.com

or

Data and Report Licensing:

949.502.8313

datareports@attomdata.com