Maine’s rate of zombie foreclosures, which are vacant homes before foreclosures, has been on a downward trend since last year, bucking a national upward trend after the moratorium on foreclosures was lifted a year ago.
That means there are fewer vacant and poorly maintained homes in areas where house prices continue to rise.
Over the past year, the number of pre-foreclosures has increased, but the percentage of vacant homes has decreased. In the third quarter of this year, about 5.59% of his 1,289 properties in Maine before foreclosures, or 72 units, were vacant. A report released on Thursday by ATTOM Data Solutions showed a drop of about 0.5% from 6.13% (59) of 953 pre-foreclosure homes during the same period last year.
Nationally, the number of vacant homes before foreclosures is increasing, but it still represents a small fraction of all homes. There were 7,707 pre-foreclosure zombie properties in the third quarter, making him 2.85% of the 270,470 pre-foreclosure properties. This is up 1.8 points from the previous quarter and 2.2 points from a year ago.
The number of vacant homes increased amid the continued rise in US foreclosures that began after the pandemic-related moratorium on foreclosures ended, according to the study group’s report.
This report analyzes publicly recorded foreclosure, stock and owner occupancy status against monthly updated vacancy data.
According to the report, 270,470 residential properties in the United States were in the process of foreclosure in the third quarter, up 4.4% from the second quarter of this year and up 25.5% from the third quarter of 2021. Property prior to foreclosure since the nationwide moratorium on lenders pursuing delinquent homeowners ends in July 2021.
Additional data from ATTOM shows that the number of vacant homes continues to decline nationally and in Maine. There are 3,361 vacant properties here statewide, down from 3,508 in the third quarter of last year. That’s less than 1% of total residential real estate in the state. Nationally, vacancy rates have fallen by less than 1%, leaving 1.3 million empty homes.
“Vacancy rates should continue to be low as investors and prospective homebuyers compete for limited inventory,” said Rick Sharga, Executive Vice President of ATOMM. “The number of zombie properties should continue to slowly increase as foreclosure activity recovers from historically low levels due to government intervention.”
Fewer homes are coming to market, leading to lower home sales, including in Maine. Statewide home sales were 1,691 units in July, down more than 15% from the same period last year, according to data released Thursday by the Maine Real Estate Association.
Housing shortages have driven prices up, with the median sales price in July reaching $354,000, up 12.4% from July 2021.