On average, foreclosures across the country have been much lower than they were a year ago. However, according to ATTOM Date Solutions [1], foreclosure starts are on the rise in a few heavily populated counties.
In January 2021, the U.S. Market Foreclosure Report states that 9,702 properties had foreclosure filings—including default notices, scheduled auctions, or bank repossessions. That’s 11% less than December of 2020 and 80% less than January of 2020.
And even though the report shows that the foreclosure process started for 5,235 properties in January (down 12% from December of 2020 and 86% from a year prior), some states have seen a double-digit increase in foreclosures. Washington was up 63%, Virginia was up 54%, North Carolina was up 32%, Massachusetts was up 21%, and Ohio was up 10%.
Nationwide, one in every 14,161 properties had a foreclosure filing in January of 2021. Alabama had the most (one in every 8,707), followed by Indiana Indiana (one in every 8,668), then Florida (one in every 7,920), then Louisiana (one in every 6,581), and finally Delaware (one in every 4,923).
Diving down into the county level, the 10 most populated U.S. counties with over 20,000 people that saw the biggest increase in January 2021 foreclosure starts include Suwannee County, FL (up 50 percent); Boyd County, KY (up 50 percent); Barry County, MO (up 50 percent); Butler County, MO (up 50 percent); Callaway County, MO (up 50); Steuben County, NY (up 50 percent); Jackson County, OK (up 50 percent); Cameron County, TX (up 42 percent); Coryell County, TX (up 40 percent); and Yavapai County, AZ (up 33 percent).
When it comes to the foreclosure ratio in counties with over 200,000 people, Beaumont, TX saw foreclosures in one in every 3,871 properties, Provo, UT with one in 3,631, Lafayette, LA with one in 3,492, and Birmingham, AL with one in every 3,053. This is also for January of 2021.