Zombie foreclosures up in New York, down in Connecticut

New York leads the states in the number of vacant properties in foreclosure ”“ also known as “zombie foreclosures” ”“ while Connecticut was among the states with the greatest decline in these foreclosures.

According to the Third Quarter 2021 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report published by ATTOM Data Solutions, 1.3 million U.S. residential properties are vacant, representing 1.4% of all homes.

New York had the highest number of zombie properties in the third quarter of 2021 (2,053), followed by Ohio (939), Florida (912), Illinois (805) and Pennsylvania (366). However, the majority of New York”™s zombie properties are either upstate or in the Bronx or Suffolk County.

On the flip side, Connecticut was among the states with the biggest decreases in zombie foreclosures from the second quarter to the third quarter, down from 75 to 66 properties.

The states with steeper declines included Maryland (down 39%), Massachusetts (down 26%) and New Mexico (down 24%).

“There are two reasons we might see an increase in zombie properties as we approach Halloween,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of RealtyTrac, an ATTOM company. “First, the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) has authorized lenders to pursue foreclosure proceedings on vacant and abandoned homes now that the government’s moratorium is over. Second, they’ve also given the go-ahead to restart the foreclosure process on loans that were already 120 days delinquent prior to the moratorium, and it’s not unlikely that over the past 15 months many of those financially distressed homeowners have vacated their properties.”