Talking Points

  • Default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions fell 14 percent year-over-year to 933,045 U.S. properties in 2016 to the lowest level since 2006, when there were 717,522 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings, according to ATTOM Data Solutions.
  • In December, there were 85,919 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings, down 1 percent from the previous month and down 17 percent from the year-ago period.
  • “The national foreclosure rate stayed within an historically normal range for the third consecutive year in 2016, even as banks continued to clear out legacy foreclosures from the last housing bubble, particularly in the final quarter of the year,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM.
  • Foreclosures completed in the fourth quarter had been in the foreclosure process 803 days on average, a substantial jump from the third quarter and indicating that banks pushed through significant numbers of legacy foreclosures during the quarter.
  • Nationwide, 55 percent of all loans actively in foreclosure as of the end of 2016 were originated between 2004 and 2008.