Completed foreclosures jumped in August, led by Texas. Foreclosure levels are still far below the housing crash, but the number of borrowers seriously behind on their mortgages keeps rising.
Lenders repossessed 5,794 U.S. homes in August, up 42% from a year earlier and 22% from July, according to the latest foreclosure report from ATTOM, the property data firm. Those completed foreclosures, known in the industry as REOs (real estate owned), are the last step in a process that can take a year or more, which means many of the homes changing hands now belong to borrowers who first fell behind well before this summer. Total foreclosure filings, including default notices, scheduled auctions and repossessions, reached 40,277 properties, up 13% from August 2025, or one filing for every 3,569 housing units in the country.
ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said foreclosure activity “continues to trend above year-ago levels,” while stressing that overall volumes “remain well below historical norms.” Both things are true. The 367,460 properties with a foreclosure filing in all of 2025 were about 87% below the 2010 peak of nearly 2.9 million, according to ATTOM figures reported by Mortgage Professional America, so this is not a replay of the housing crash. It is a steady rise from an unusually low base, and the August repossession numbers show it moving from paperwork to people leaving their homes.
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Sources: ATTOM August 2026 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, Sept. 17, 2026; ICE First Look at August 2026 mortgage data, Sept. 28, 2026; Mortgage Professional America; originally reported by the New York Post.