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State of Affairs PRESENTS TOP NEWS A recent industry study found that one in five homes in foreclosure has been abandoned by the homeowner and sits vacant as the lender or investor idly awaits foreclosure judgment in order to take ownership of the property. According to estimates from RealtyTrac, 167,680 properties in foreclosure at the end of June had been vacated by the owner. That tally represents 20 percent of all foreclosures. Adding to this total are the more than 540,000 banked-owned properties still waiting to be sold to a third party, by RealtyTrac's calculations. The tracking firm calls it "somewhat ironic" that efforts to slow housing markets' slide downward in previous years are now hampering a smooth recovery by holding back inventory from the market. With 55,503 vacant foreclosures, Florida alone accounted for 33 percent of the nation's unoccupied homes that have not yet reached foreclosure sale. Next in line was Illinois, which holds 17,672 abandoned homes in foreclosure. California, Ohio, and New York each held around 9,000 vacant foreclosures. At 32 percent, Indiana surpassed all other states with the highest share of foreclosures that are sitting empty. In Oregon and Nevada, 28 percent of foreclosures are owner-vacated. Washington, Georgia, and Michigan followed closely behind, with the share of owner-vacated foreclosures at 27 percent for each state. Among metro areas, Chicago took the No. 1 spot with 14,717 owner-vacated foreclosures, followed by Miami (13,901), New York (10,074), Tampa (9,998), and Orlando (5,569). Note: The state-by-state trends are based on a compilation of May 2013 real estate public records data and proprietary mortgage loan performance transactions provided by LPS Applied Analytics as well as a preliminary unemployment rate for May 2013 based upon public information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. LPS Applied Analytics is a trusted resource for mortgage lenders, servicers, and investors—providing market-leading data and analytics solutions to help them succeed. These offerings allow professionals to improve performance, proactively identify risk, create mitigation strategies, and accurately estimate collateral value. An integral part of parent company Lender Processing Services' (LPS) end-to-end solution suite, LPS Applied Analytics products include: property, MLS, and mortgage performance data; mortgage and real estate analytics; lead generation; portfolio monitoring and analytics; valuations; and property tax reporting. To learn more about LPS visit LPSvcs.com.