To give you in-depth insights regarding the U.S. national housing market here we present the breakdown of the Q1 2020 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.
During the Q1 of 2020, there were a total of 156,253 U.S. properties with a foreclosure filing. Compared to Q4 2019, it is up by 42% but it is down by 3% from a year ago.
The foreclosure process has started on 81,251 properties (+ 1% from Q4 2019 but -11% from Q1 2019).
Banks repossessed 29,923 properties (REO), ( -28 % from Q4 2019 and -16 % from Q1 2019). This is the 16th successive quarter with a year on year drop in U.S. REOs. Over 40 states recorded year on year decline in REOs including Tennessee (- 39%); Florida (-37 %); New Jersey (-33 %); Pennsylvania (-32 %); and Texas (-29 %).
While the majority of states reflected the national trend of a decrease in foreclosure starts, in Q1 2020 foreclosure starts increased in 11 states: Alaska ( +16 %); Georgia (+ 12%); California (+ 10 %); Delaware (+3 %); Illinois (+ 1 %), etc.
Foreclosure Market Overview for March 2020
In total 27,812 U.S. properties started the foreclosure process in March 2020 (+ 3 % from February 2020 but -14 % from March 2019). Nationwide the foreclosure process was completed on 9,091 U.S. properties (-13 % from February 2020 and -25 % from March 2019).
In Delaware, New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, and Florida states were recorded the highest foreclosure market rates.
These insights show how strong was the U.S. national housing market. However, because of the Coronavirus pandemic in March, millions of Americans started losing their jobs. It is expected that in the next few quarters the foreclosures will get even lower, such as lenders (banks) are offering forbearance. However, if unemployment continues to rise people may not be able to make their mortgage payments, so numbers of REOs could rise later this year.
