Foreclosures are down 44% from the same period last year and 54% from two years ago.

Things are kind of dicey in the housing finance market right now, with the economic impact of the coronavirus spiking unemployment and mortgage forbearance. But ATTOM Data Solutions, Irvine, Calif., says for now there is a silver lining. The company’s Midyear 2020 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report shows 165,530 properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions, or bank repossessions — in the first six months of 2020, down 44 percent from the same period a year ago and down 54 percent from the same period two years ago. Ohan Antebia, General Manager of RealtyTrac, the parent company of ATTOM, said the downward trend in foreclosures is likely to continue as forbearance actions and federal prohibitions on lenders from pursuing delinquent loans until at least the end of August remain in effect. “The residential foreclosure market across the nation continues to contract amid a combination of booming housing market conditions before the current coronavirus pandemic hit and a moratorium on activity while the country struggles to overcome the crisis,” Antebian said. “Foreclosure starts and completions were already declining rapidly last year because the housing market and the economy were riding so high. Now they’re down to lows not seen for at least 15 years.”

Source: ATTOM