The number of foreclosure auctions conducted is expected to increase 24% in 2023 from the previous year, representing a gradual rise as pandemic-related moratoriums expire, Auction.com said.
The online marketplace predicted 104,000 completed property sales this year, compared with an expected 2022 total of 84,000. However, the increase is still slightly less than half of the 209,000 foreclosure auctions conducted in 2019, the last full year of activity before COVID-19 affected the housing market.
“As pandemic-era foreclosure protections gradually phased out in 2022, we saw a slowly rising tide of completed foreclosure auctions, not a massive tsunami that some might have feared,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of market economics at Auction.com, in a press release.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s fourth-quarter National Delinquency Survey found foreclosure starts for the period were at 0.15%, down 1 basis point from the third quarter. But the share of mortgaged properties in foreclosure increased 1 basis point from the third quarter and 15 basis points compared with the fourth quarter of 2021 to 0.57%.[…]
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