Manhattan foreclosures soar 118%, driven by mortgage defaults

The Bronx saw the sharpest decline in foreclosures at 51%

Manhattan’s 10019 zip code, which covers Midtown, Times Square, Herald Square and Midtown South, saw the most foreclosures in the borough with eight. (Credit: iStock)
Manhattan’s 10019 zip code, which covers Midtown, Times Square, Herald Square and Midtown South, saw the most foreclosures in the borough with eight. (Credit: iStock)

Residential foreclosures in Manhattan and Staten Island are skyrocketing — but the other boroughs are having better luck.

Foreclosures in Manhattan and Staten Island saw 118 percent and 183 percent year-over-year increases, respectively, during the third quarter, according to a new report from PropertyShark.

Even though the increase by percentage in Manhattan was very sharp, the increase by raw numbers was more modest. The borough saw 48 property foreclosures during 2019’s third quarter, up from 22 during 2018’s third quarter. More than half of them were mortgage foreclosures, and 48 was still the highest number the borough has seen since the fourth quarter of 2016, when there were 54 foreclosures. Midtown, Times Square, Herald Square and Midtown South saw 8 foreclosures, the most in the borough.

Staten Island — which saw 136 foreclosures in the third quarter, up from 48 foreclosures in last year’s third quarter — saw a significant uptick in pre-foreclosure filings, according to PropertyShark’s analysis. But 136 is still the lowest number of foreclosures Staten Island has seen dating back to the fourth quarter of 2018, when there were 177 cases.

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Across the five boroughs on the whole, foreclosures were rather stagnant, increasing by just 1 percent year over year to 723. This was the lowest number of foreclosures during 2019 so far, as there were 870 during the year’s first quarter and 847 during its second quarter. The Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn all saw foreclosures drop by 51 percent, 10 percent and 2 percent, respectively, the report says.

Brooklyn saw 199 foreclosures overall during the third quarter, down from 242 during the second quarter and 214 during the first quarter. Its 11236 ZIP code, covering Canarsie, saw the most throughout the borough and the city at 32.

Queens had the most foreclosures by raw numbers throughout the five boroughs with 272, but this was still a significant drop from the 303 foreclosures the borough saw during last year’s third quarter. Jamaica, Rochdale and St. Albans had the most cases in Queens at 23.

Meanwhile, foreclosures in the Bronx have been gradually decreasing since 2018, with 68 properties hitting the auction block during the third quarter, down from 96 during the second quarter, 150 during the first quarter and 140 during last year’s third quarter. The ZIP code that saw the most cases with 13 was 10469, which includes the Pelham Parkway, Laconia and Williamsbridge neighborhoods.