Roughly one in every 4,000 homes had a foreclosure filing in May, a 7% increase from April and a 14% annual gain. That uptick corresponds with the end of a federal moratorium that suspended foreclosures during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the moratorium ended in 2021, many states extended it.
Homeowners who have been late on their mortgage payments for the past few years are now being served with foreclosure notices, and that share is also rising as housing becomes more expensive, Realtor.com reports.
“A lot of people just can’t afford the house they’re in,” says Paul Urich, a bankruptcy attorney who handles foreclosures in Orlando, FL. “Everything’s become so expensive, and a lot of these folks are trapped in variable-rate mortgages so their payments keep going up and up. Then we have the issue with homeowners insurance where every time we get a storm, [the insurance companies] either cancel or raise the prices.”
PB Topical Ref
