Home foreclosures climb in Columbus but remain historically low
Foreclosures in Ohio and throughout the U.S. have climbed to their highest levels since the start of the pandemic, following the expiration of foreclosure moratoriums.
In January, 23,204 U.S. properties received some foreclosure filing, up 139% from a year ago, when the moratoriums were in effect, according to the real-estate information service Attom Data Solutions.
Foreclosures remain historically low, even below the low rates from two years ago before the pandemic.
“The increased level of foreclosure activity in January wasn’t a surprise,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of the Attom subsidiary RealtyTrac.
“Foreclosures typically slow down during the holidays in November and December and pick back up after the first of the year. This year, the increases were probably a little more dramatic than usual since foreclosure restrictions placed on mortgage servicers by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau expired at the end of December.”
Attom counts foreclosure lawsuits, sheriff sales and bank repossessions in its foreclosure tally.
In the Columbus area, 126 foreclosure filings were reported in January, up from 55 a year ago; 87 of the filings were foreclosure lawsuits, up from 35 the previous January, according to Attom.
Banks also repossessed 11 Columbus-area homes in January, compared with 1 a year ago. Nationally, lenders repossessed 4,784 properties in January, up 235 percent from a year earlier, according to Attom.
In the Cleveland area, 580 foreclosure documents were filed in January, up from 170 a year ago. In Cincinnati, 190, up from 105. In Akron, 111, up from 57. In Dayton, 142, up from 32. And in Toledo, 85, up from 24.
Several state and federal foreclosure restrictions put in place during the pandemic kept foreclosure numbers unusually low over much of the past 18 months. The last restrictions, by the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, expired Dec. 31.
Foreclosures started rising slightly last summer in Columbus and elsewhere, in anticipation of the first moratoriums lifting.
Sharga noted that while the numbers are rising, they remain modest by historical standards.
“It’s very important to keep these numbers in context,” he said in a news release.
“Foreclosure completions are still far below normal levels – less than half as many as in January of 2020 before the pandemic was declared, and about 60% lower than the number of foreclosure completions in 2019. We’re likely to continue seeing large year-over-year percentage increases for the rest of this year, but it’s also likely that foreclosure activity will remain below historically normal levels until the end of 2022.”
@JimWeiker
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