The housing market is in a state of flux, with some areas showing signs of danger. Foreclosure filings, a measure used to gauge the health of real estate markets at the local, state or national levels, have been on the rise across the country. In the first half of the year, 96% of major metropolitan areas experienced an annual increase in foreclosure requests. Illinois, New Jersey and Ohio had the highest rates, followed by Florida, Nevada, Indiana, Georgia and Michigan.
Two new factors in the last two years that may affect a homeowner's ability to pay their mortgage are related to COVID-19. Hospitalizations due to the virus and its long-term effects can reduce revenues and increase expenses enough to lead to foreclosure. In the second quarter, 79% of metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000 and sufficient historical foreclosure data were below pre-recession averages. This included major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco, Riverside-San Bernardino, Phoenix and Detroit. Metropolitan areas with foreclosure activity above pre-recession averages included Honolulu, Richmond, Virginia-Beach, Albany and Montgomery. ATTOM provides high-quality real estate data to promote products that improve transparency, innovation, efficiency and disruption in a data-driven economy.
ATTOM uses multiple sources of data on property taxes, deeds, mortgages, foreclosures, environmental hazards, natural hazards and neighborhoods for more than 155 million U. S. residential and commercial properties that cover 99 percent of the country's population. A rigorous data management process that includes more than 20 steps validates, standardizes and improves the real estate data collected by ATTOM. Demand for single-family homes has increased over the past two years due to the coronavirus pandemic leading people to seek more living space.
The increase in demand facilitated by low interest rates and supply restrictions has caused housing prices to rise sharply. These are the 15 cities with the most overrated housing markets. New Jersey had the fourth highest foreclosure rate with one in 2,441 homes. Delaware fell from first place with one in 2,426 homes. Ohio had one in 2,667 homes while Florida had one in 2,788 homes.
Arizona had one in 3266 homes while Rhode Island had one in 5313 homes. Vermont had one in 10 094 homes while Delaware had one in 13 475 homes. The increase in foreclosures is increasing the precariousness of the market and mortgage delinquency rate leading to foreclosures. ATTOM's 20 TB data warehouse drives innovation in many industries such as mortgage, real estate insurance marketing government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include bulk file licensing real estate data APIs real estate market trends real estate reporting and more. Foreclosure starts are down 1 percent from last month while completed foreclosures are up 1 percent. It is important to stay informed about foreclosure rates as they can be an indicator of economic health at local state or national levels.
