Residential mortgage foreclosure filings were up around the country in July, and the biggest cities in the U.S. also were not immune.
Foreclosure filings last month were 13 percent higher than they were at the same time last year, according to a report from real estate data firm Attom. Overall, there were more than 36,000 of such filings, which include default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions. That means 1 in every 3,939 housing units had such a filing.
Among the most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S., three-quarters saw their foreclosure filings surge year over year, and just 14 of these regions saw foreclosure activity drop during this time. (The Real Deal analyzed Attom’s foreclosure data for the 56 cities that have populations of at least 1 million residents.)
Rising mortgage rates, soaring home prices and economic uncertainty have not helped the residential real estate market. In the first half of the year, there were about 188,000 properties with foreclosure filings, the highest for that time frame since 2019, according to Attom.
The metro area with a population above 1 million that had the greatest growth in filings year over year was Kansas City, Missouri, where they surged more than 186 percent.
However, Kansas City’s foreclosure rate — 1 of every 7,543 homes had a foreclosure filing — was one of the better ones among the country’s largest cities.
The highest rate for this cohort goes to the Houston metro area, where 1 of every 1,882 homes had a foreclosure filing. Houston also follows Kansas City for its growth in activity, as foreclosure filings in Texas’ most populous city climbed about 113 percent year over year. Three other Lone Star State metro areas — San Antonio, Austin and Dallas — cracked the top 10 for having the greatest increases in activity.
Rochester, New York, recorded the steepest drop in its filings year over year among the top cities, with foreclosure activity plunging there by nearly 46 percent. The Philadelphia metro area followed, with filings tumbling almost 30 percent during the period.
New York, the country’s largest metro area, also experienced a decline of about 16 percent in foreclosure activity compared to the year before. In that region, 1 in every 4,474 homes has a foreclosure filing.
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