U.S. Foreclosure Filings Up 14% Year Over Year in May, per ATTOM Data

The Numbers

ATTOM, a real estate analytics firm, reported on June 11 that 40,355 U.S. properties had foreclosure filings in May 2026. That is down 5% from April but up 14% compared to May 2025.

The year-over-year acceleration has been building. April 2026 filings were up 18% from a year prior. The first quarter of 2026 came in 26% above Q1 2025.

Lenders completed 4,092 repossessions (known as REOs) in May — down 20% from April but up 6% from a year ago, according to ATTOM.

Where It's Hitting Hardest

Nationally, one in every 3,562 housing units had a foreclosure filing in May. Florida had the worst rate among states: one in 2,110 units. South Carolina, Maryland, Nevada, and Indiana followed.

Among large metro areas (population 2 million or more), Cleveland, Ohio led with one in every 1,524 housing properties. Baltimore, Tampa, Riverside, and Orlando rounded out the top five.

For completed foreclosures by raw count, Texas topped the list at 519, followed by California, Florida, Illinois, and Michigan.

What's Driving It

ATTOM CEO Rob Barber attributed the pressure to three overlapping factors: elevated mortgage rates, rising ownership costs, and affordability constraints. Those three things have squeezed homeowners who bought or refinanced at peak prices and are now unable to keep up with payments.

Barber was also careful to frame the data in context: "Foreclosure volumes remain well below historical norms, indicating that the housing market continues to show resilience despite these challenges."

The 2010 foreclosure crisis saw monthly filing counts multiple times higher than today's numbers. The current wave, while real and growing, does not yet look like a systemic collapse.

The Strongest Counterargument

Skeptics of the "resilience" framing have a fair point. The 26% year-over-year increase in Q1, followed by 18% in April and 14% in May, does not describe a stable situation. It describes a decelerating but still-rising trajectory. Critics argue that comparing current numbers to the post-2008 spike sets a misleadingly high bar, and that millions of homeowners who locked in low-rate mortgages between 2020 and 2022 have not yet cycled through any financial stress test. If rates stay elevated and unemployment ticks up, the pressure on that cohort could intensify. Whether "well below historical norms" remains true six months from now is genuinely open.

What Comes Next

Legal services firm Nolo predicted in a June 12 post that foreclosure rates will gradually rise through the latter part of 2026, though the source material does not detail the specific drivers or assumptions behind that forecast.

ATTOM's Q2 2026 report, which will cover filings through June, will be the cleaner test. If the annual comparison narrows further from May's 14% — continuing the deceleration from Q1's 26% — that supports the resilience argument. If it holds or widens, the trend becomes harder to wave off.

ATTOM's data shows a real and sustained increase in foreclosure activity running at double-digit annual rates, with the worst geographic concentrations in Florida, Ohio, and the mid-Atlantic. Whether that plateaus or accelerates depends almost entirely on where mortgage rates go from here.