CT and NY foreclosure filings plummet (but there’s an asterisk attached)

The housing markets in Connecticut and New York recorded significant year-over-year declines in foreclosure filings during the first half of this year, albeit due to circumstances beyond the states”™ control.

According to statistics published by ATTOM Data Solutions, Connecticut ranked 11th among the states for the number of foreclosure filings between January and June, with 836 or 0.06% of the state”™s total housing units. That represented a 69.54% drop from the same period in 2020 and an 82.65% plummet from the same period in 2019.

New York ranked 35th, with 2,343 foreclosure filings or 0.03% of the state”™s total housing units. That represented a 73.53% decline from the same period in 2020 and an 87.73% tumble from the first half of 2019.

ATTOM, a licensor of foreclosure data and parent company to the RealtyTrac online marketplace for foreclosure and distressed properties, noted there were a total of 65,082 properties with foreclosure filings ”” default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions ”” in the first six months this year, down 61% from the same time period a year ago and down 78% from the same time period two years ago.

However, the data came with a major asterisk.

“The government’s foreclosure moratorium and mortgage forbearance program have created an unprecedented situation ”“ historically high numbers of seriously delinquent loans and historically low levels of foreclosure activity,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of RealtyTrac.

“With the moratorium scheduled to end on July 31, and half of the remaining borrowers in forbearance scheduled to exit that program over the next six months, we should start to get a more accurate read on the level of financial distress the pandemic has caused for homeowners across the country.”

Only five of the 220 metro areas analyzed by ATTOM reported upticks in foreclosure filing activity during the first half of the year: Tyler, Texas (up 88%); Brownsville, Texas (up 21%); Springfield, Illinois (up 19%); Sioux Falls, South Dakota (up 9%); and Lake Charles, Louisiana (up 5%).