Consequences of the mortgage crisis are still present in the US housing market, even despite some improvement in general. A huge number of homes are vacant as their owners were subject to a foreclosure process because they failed to pay their loans.
According to ATTOM Data Solutions, there were 18,304 so-called ‘zombie’ foreclosures, vacant residential properties in the foreclosure process in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, the report also said there were 46,604 vacant bank-owned homes in the third quarter. This is up 67% from the third quarter of 2015.
Florida had 5,880 vacant REOs, Michigan had 4,661 properties, Ohio had 3,585 properties, Illinois had 2,652 properties, and Georgia had 2,626 properties.
“Assuming that the foreclosing lenders are maintaining these properties and paying the property taxes, they pose less of a threat to neighborhood quality than zombie foreclosures, but they still represent latent inventory in an inventory-starved housing market,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions.
