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7 HOW THE END OF MORATORIA ARE AFFECTING FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY Housing professionals have long been anticipating the response to the July 31 expiration of the federal moratorium on foreclosures. With August numbers coming in, analysts say there has indeed been a rise in foreclosure activity, but they do not expect a large influx. Borrowers across the nation collectively have record levels of home equity, and the sellers' market is so hot, thus property owners in peril are more likely to place their houses on the market than accept foreclosure. RealtyTrac, a subsidiary of ATTOM that specializes in foreclosure and distressed sales data, released the August 2021 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 15,838 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings—default notices, scheduled auctions, or bank repossessions—that's one in every 8,677 housing units, up 27% from a month ago and up 60% from a year ago. So, nothing unanticipated is in the report, say the experts at RealtyTrac. "As expected, foreclosure activity increased as the government's foreclosure moratorium expired, but this doesn't mean we should expect to see a flood of distressed properties coming to market," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac EVP. "We'll continue to see foreclosure activity increase over the next three months as loans that were in default prior to the moratorium re-enter the foreclosure pipeline, and states begin to catch up on months of foreclosure filings that simply haven't been processed during the pandemic. But it's likely that foreclosures will remain below normal levels at least through the end of the year." Regionally, Illinois, Nevada, and New Jersey had the highest foreclosure rates. Starts: Lenders initiated the foreclosure process on 8,348 U.S. properties in August, up 27% from last month and up 49% from a year ago. Sharga says it is important to keep these statistics in perspective by comparing them to pre-moratorium levels. "While foreclosure starts increased significantly compared to last month and last year, it's very important to keep these numbers in context," Sharga noted. "Both last year's and last month's foreclosure starts were artificially low due to the government's moratorium. But in August of 2019, the last year we had 'normal' foreclosure activity, there were almost 28,000 foreclosure starts—over three times more than this year." States that had the greatest number of foreclosure starts in August were California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and New York. Completions: Lenders nationwide repossessed 2,474 properties through completed foreclosures (REOs) in August, up 2% from last month and up 22% from last year. New York, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, and Texas saw the largest rise in REO properties. Journal Compiled by the DS News Staff TA K E A L O O K I N S I D E T H E N U M B E R S DATA BITS Source: LendingTree.com I N S I D E T H E J O U R N A L | I N F O S T R E A M | T H E D I G I TA L E D G E | M O V E R S & S H A K E R S According to the Department of the Treasury, more than 420,000 households received emergency rental assistance in August, totaling over 2.3 billion in payments. The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently increased Fannie Mae's cap for Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) investments from 500 million a year to 850 million a year. MEPHIS, TENNESSEE $33,317 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI $33,241 PITTSBURG, PENNSLYVANIA $32,990 MILWAUKEE, WISCONSON $32,496 DETROIT, MICHIGAN $31,656 PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND $31,564 LOUSIVILLE, KENTUCKY $31,445 ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI $29,958 NEW ORLEANS, LOUSIANA $29,371 OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA $28,267 10 MARKETS WITH LOWEST DOWN PAYMENTS SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA $115,138 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA $103,016 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA $85,714 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA $83,715 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON $79,561 NEW YORK, NEW YORK $32,436 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETS $60,692 WASHINGTON D.C. $57,570 DENVER, COLORADO $55,559 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA $52,877 10 MARKETS WITH HIGHEST DOWN PAYMENTS CITY CITY Senior Advisor for Housing Finance in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), President Ginnie Mae Page 36 MOVERS & SHAKERS WITH Alanna McCargo

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