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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 60 September 2024 J O U R N A L U.S. FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY RISES AMID MARKET SHIFTS T he U.S. foreclosure market experienced a notable uptick in July 2024, with foreclosure filings increasing by 15% from the previous month, according to the latest report from ATTOM Data, a land, property, and real estate data firm. A total of 31,929 properties across the nation faced fore- closure actions, which include default notices, scheduled auctions, or bank repossessions. This marks a slight 0.2% increase from the same period last year. Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM, high- lighted the significance of these develop- ments. "July's foreclosure activity reflects a slight shift in the housing market," Barber said. "With an 18% increase in foreclo- sure starts and a 14% rise in completed foreclosures from last month, these shifts may highlight growing pressures in certain areas. However, soaring home prices con- tinue to spike the value of homes across the nation, boosting equity for home- owners at virtually every stage of paying off mortgages. Monitoring these next few months will help us better understand the implications for the real estate sector." Highest Foreclosure Rates in Delaware, Nevada, and Utah Nationwide, one in every 4,414 housing units had a foreclosure filing in July 2024. Delaware led the states with the highest foreclosure rates, with one in every 2,214 housing units receiving a fore- closure filing. Nevada and Utah followed closely, with one in every 2,245 and 2,289 housing units, respectively. Other states with high foreclosure rates included New Jersey and Illinois. In terms of metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with populations over 200,000, Provo-Orem, Utah, reported the highest foreclosure rate, with one in ev- ery 940 housing units facing foreclosure. Macon, Georgia, and Columbia, South Carolina, were also among the top metro areas with significant foreclosure activity. California, Florida, and Texas Lead in Foreclosure Starts Lenders initiated foreclosure pro- ceedings on 21,870 U.S. properties in July 2024, an 18% increase from June and a 4% rise compared to July 2023. California led the nation with 2,342 foreclosure starts, followed by Florida (2,339 starts) and Texas (2,222). Among major metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million, New York City topped the list with 1,286 fore- closure starts. Chicago, Philadelphia, Mi- ami, and Los Angeles also saw significant numbers of foreclosure initiations. Completed Foreclosures Increase by 14% The report also noted a rise in com- pleted foreclosures, with lenders repos- sessing 3,282 U.S. properties in July 2024, marking a 14% increase from the previous month. However, this figure represented a 2% decrease from July 2023. New York led the states with the highest number of completed foreclo- sures (REOs) at 377, followed closely by California (370 REOs) and Illinois (221). Major metropolitan areas like New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco also re- corded significant numbers of completed foreclosures. As the housing market continues to navigate these fluctuations, industry ex- perts will be closely watching how these trends evolve in the coming months. FORBEARANCES ON THE RISE NATIONWIDE A ccording to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) monthly Loan Monitoring Survey, the total number of loans now in forbearance increased from 0.23% to 0.27% as of July 31, 2024. The MBA estimates that 135,000 homeowners are currently in forbearance plans, as the na- tion's mortgage servicers have provided forbearance to approximately 8.2 million borrowers since March 2020. "July saw an increase of approxi- mately 20,000 more U.S. homeowners in forbearance compared to the previous month," said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA's VP of Industry Analysis. "Most of this change can be attributed to recent nat- ural disasters, which accounted for 27% of all loans in forbearance last month compared to 16% in June." According to the NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, four new billion-dollar weather and climate disasters were confirmed in July 2024, including one severe weather event that impacted the southern United States in mid-May, New Mexico wildfires during June and July, one severe weather event that impacted the central and northeastern United States (June 24–26), and Hurricane Beryl (July 8–9).