Home foreclosures jumped 13% in the first half of 2023 to the highest level since before the pandemic

• Foreclosures jumped 13% year-over-year in the first half of 2023, real estate data firm ATTOM reported.
• Foreclosures are ticking higher after being paused for much of the pandemic.

Home foreclosure filings have been ticking up steadily this year, with the first half of 2023 reporting a 13% jump from the same period in 2022.

According to the real-estate data firm ATTOM, 185,580 properties held a default notice or were liable for a scheduled auction or bank repossession in the first six months of the year.

This is the highest January-to-June foreclosure activity since 2019, outpacing the 165,530 filings that occurred in the first half of 2020, when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Foreclosures fell notably in the COVID-19 era, only resuming their uptrend in 2021.

"Although overall foreclosure activity remains below historical norms, the notable surge in foreclosure starts indicates that we may continue to see a rise in foreclosure activity in the coming years," ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in the recent report.

The new half-year data nearly doubles the amount of filings recorded in the first quarter. During that time, reasons for climbing foreclosures included a rise in unemployment rates, as well as a backlog of filings, stalled during the pandemic due to the federal moratorium.

Specifically, to relieve homeowners who were falling behind on mortgage payments during the pandemic years, federally-backed housing loans were put on pause through the CARES Act, but the legislation expired in 2021.

Now, the market is playing catch up, and this may be contributing to the growing length of time foreclosure proceedings take, which hit an all-time high average of 1,212 days in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, foreclosure starts also jumped in 2023's first half, growing 15% from last year. That's alongside a consistent uptick in bank repossessions, which were up 9% from 2022's first half, extending a three-year high achieved in the first quarter.

While trending upwards, the figures are nowhere near the highs seen in the run-up to the Great Recession. According to ATTOM, foreclosure activity in the second quarter was 65% below the 278,912 averages of the pre-recessionary years.