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92 92 INVESTMENT GOVERNMENT PROPERTY PRESERVATION VACANT HOMES IN FORECLOSURE RECORD THIRD CONSECUTIVE QUARTERLY INCREASE ATTOM has released its fourth-quarter 2022 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report showing that 1.3 million (an estimated 1,264,241) residential properties in the United States sit vacant. at figure represents 1.26%— or one in 79 homes—across the nation. e report also reveals that 284,423 resi- dential properties in the United States are in the process of foreclosure in Q4 of this year, up 5.2% from Q3 of 2022, and up 27.4% from Q4 of 2021. A growing number of homeowners have faced potential foreclosure since a nationwide government moratorium on lenders pursuing delinquent homeowners, imposed after the Coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, was lifted at the end of July 2021. Among those pre-foreclosure properties, 7,722 are zombie foreclosures—pre-foreclosure properties abandoned by owners—in Q4 of 2022, up 0.2% from the prior quarter, and 3.9% from a year ago. e count of zombie properties has grown in each of the last three quarters. "e government's foreclosure moratorium dramatically reduced the number of properties in foreclosure," said Rick Sharga, Executive VP of Market Intelligence at ATTOM. "Vacant and abandoned properties were among the few homes that could still be foreclosed on during the moratorium, so the number of zombie properties shrank as well. Now that the foreclosure ban has been lifted, we're likely to see a gradual return to pre-pandemic levels." Despite the increase, the number of zombie foreclosures remains historically low, representing just a tiny segment of the nation's total stock of 100.1 million residential properties. Just one of every 12,963 homes in Q4 of 2022 is vacant and in foreclosure, meaning that most neighborhoods still have no such properties. at ratio is almost the same as in Q3 of this year, although up 2.5% from one in 13,292 in Q4 of 2021. e portion of pre-foreclosure properties that have been abandoned into zombie status, mean- while, continues to decline, from 3.3% a year ago to 2.8% in Q3 of 2022 and 2.7% in Q4 of this year. e latest trends—zombie foreclosure numbers up slightly but remaining tiny—again reflect one of many high points from a housing market that has seen 11 years of nearly uninter- rupted gains. Median home values nationwide have more than doubled since 2012, home-sell- er profits have shot up over 50% and the vast majority of homeowners have equity built up in their homes. ose forces provide an enormous incentive for owners behind on their mortgages to do everything they can to avoid abandoning their properties even as foreclosure activity increases.