Zombie Foreclosures Down 11% From Q1 but Up in 91 of 183 Metro Areas

Irvine, CA, June 11, 2015—RealtyTrac has released its Q2 2015 Zombie Foreclosure Report, which found that 127,021 homes actively in the foreclosure process had been vacated by the homeowners prior to a completed foreclosure, representing 24% of the 527,047 U.S. properties in foreclosure.

The total number of zombie foreclosures was down 11% from previous quarter and down 10% from Q2 2014. One in every 1,040 U.S. housing units was an owner-vacated zombie foreclosure.

These owner-vacated foreclosure properties will likely end up as short sales, foreclosure auction sales or bank-owned sales in the future.

The highest zombie foreclosure rates among the 183 metro areas analyzed in the report were in Atlantic City, New Jersey (one in 130 housing units); Trenton, New Jersey (one in 166 housing units); Tampa, Florida (one in 218 housing units); Binghamton, New York (one in every 260 housing units); and Ocala, Florida (one in every 262 housing units).

Among the states the highest zombie foreclosure rates were in New Jersey (one in every 210 housing units), Florida (one in every 324 housing units), New York (one in every 476 housing units), Nevada (one in every 495 housing units), and Indiana (one in every 574 housing units).

Zombies increased in 91 of the 183 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in this report. Major markets where the number of zombies increased from a year ago included New York (up 38%), Los Angeles (up 39%), Houston (38%), Philadelphia (up 19%), and Boston (up 14%).