Skyrocketing Foreclosures

Foreclosures are skyrocketing!  Except, they aren’t.  Recent headlines proclaim that foreclosures are up big time.  But let’s put it in context.  In the first six months of 2023, there were 186,000 foreclosure filings in the US.  That’s up 12% from last year, but the headlines compare to 2021 so it’s a 186% increase.  That’s a huge percentage increase – the market must be ready to collapse!  Until you see how it stacks up historically.  Foreclosures were artificially low during the pandemic, so let’s look at pre-pandemic numbers.  From 1.7 million foreclosures in the first six months of 2010, the number declined each year ending with 296,000 in 2019.  So 186,000 filings is historically very low and no reason to be concerned about an explosion of foreclosures.