South Carolina near top in highest foreclosure rate.

• Date: 08 September 2022

South Carolina was among the states with the highest foreclosure rates during the month of August, according to a new report.

The overall foreclosure picture across the U.S. is not a pretty one.

ATTOM, a curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, has released its August 2022 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

Data shows there were a total of 34,501 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions up 14% from a month ago and up 118% from a year ago, according to a news release from ATTOM.

Nationwide 1 in every 4,072 housing units had a foreclosure filing in August 2022. States with the highest foreclosure rates were Illinois (one in every 1,926 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Delaware (1in every 2,387 housing units); South Carolina (1 in every 2,417 housing units); New Jersey (1in every 2,441 housing units); and Florida (1in every 2,950 housing units).

You can read the full report and methodologyhere.

Foreclosure starts reach pre-pandemic levels nationwide

Lenders started the foreclosure process on 23,952 U.S. properties in August 2022, up 12% from last month and up 187% from a year ago, according to the report.

"Two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and after massive government intervention and mortgage industry efforts to prevent defaults, foreclosure starts have almost returned to 2019 levels," said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM, in the release. "August foreclosure starts were at 86 percent of the number of foreclosure starts in August 2019, but it's important to remember that even then, foreclosure activity was relatively low compared to historical...