The U.S. foreclosure rate is the cleanest single measure of housing-market distress. ATTOM Data Solutions (the parent company of RealtyTrac) publishes an annual U.S. Year-End Foreclosure Market Report each January, and the headline number — share of all U.S. housing units that received at least one foreclosure filing during the year — has become the standard metric for tracking distress in the housing finance system. A "filing" includes any of three event types: a default notice (the lender's first legal step after missed payments), a scheduled auction, or an actual bank repossession.

The 2005–2024 record at a glance

Across the 20-year ATTOM record, U.S. annual foreclosure rates have ranged from a low of 0.11% in 2021 to a high of 2.23% in 2010 — a roughly 20-fold spread between the trough and peak years. 2024 sits at 0.30%, comfortably below the long-run pre-pandemic norm and roughly one-seventh of the 2010 cycle peak. The story behind that range is the story of the 2008 housing finance crisis, the post-2010 deleveraging cycle, the COVID-era foreclosure moratoria, and the gradual normalization that followed.

The 2007–2010 foreclosure crisis

The peak of 2.23% in 2010 was the deepest sustained foreclosure event in modern U.S. history. By comparison, the 2005 reading of 0.58% was already meaningfully elevated by historical norms — the subprime origination cycle had begun pulling in marginal borrowers — but the post-2008 acceleration multiplied that base by roughly 3.8×. At the 2010 peak, more than 2.9 million U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in a single year. That distress fed directly into the inventory pipeline (see months of supply, which peaked at 10.5 months in the same year), and the foreclosed homes that hit the market dramatically suppressed median sale prices for years afterward. The subprime collapse longform walks through the loan-origination practices that created the underlying distress and the policy response that followed.

The 2020–2021 moratoria — the lowest reading on record

The all-time low of 0.11% in 2021 was not a market signal. It was a policy artifact. The CARES Act (March 2020) imposed a foreclosure moratorium on federally-backed mortgages, and successive federal and state-level extensions kept that moratorium in place through most of 2021. Bank repossessions essentially stopped during the moratorium window, and even default notices were paused for many borrowers. The 2021 reading of 0.11% was roughly 69% below the pre-pandemic 2019 reading of 0.36% — a gap that reflected pause, not improvement.

The 2022+ normalization

As federal moratoria expired through 2022, foreclosure activity resumed but did not snap back to pre-pandemic levels. Three structural factors explain the gentle reset: home equity in the existing-mortgage stock had risen substantially during the 2020–2022 price surge (giving distressed borrowers more room to sell rather than default), payment burdens on the locked-in 3% mortgage stock are sustainable even on tight household budgets, and lenders have generally shown more willingness to negotiate workouts than during the 2008 cycle. The current reading of 0.30% remains well below the 2007–2014 stress range and even below the pre-pandemic 2019 reading of 0.36%. For the broader macro context, see the how does today's housing market compare to 2008? Q&A.

Geographic concentration matters

National foreclosure rates mask large state-level differences. In the 2008-cycle peak years, the so-called "sand states" — Nevada, Arizona, Florida, California — ran foreclosure rates 2–4× the national average, while rural Midwest and Northeast states stayed below the national rate. In recent years, the pattern has shifted: states with high property-tax burdens and slow judicial-foreclosure processes (New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, South Carolina) have led the rankings, while states with cheaper housing and faster foreclosure resolution have shown lower rates. The metro-level breakdown isn't published in this Almanac yet, but state-level home-price context is available across the 50 state pages.

Methodology note: figures are ATTOM Data Solutions annual U.S. foreclosure rate, % of housing units with at least one foreclosure filing during the year. Source: ATTOM Data Solutions / RealtyTrac year-end U.S. Foreclosure Market Reports. Last data refresh: 2026-05-02 — verify against ATTOM's most recent year-end release before citing any single observation in derivative work.

Annual U.S. foreclosure rate — 2005 to 2024

Foreclosure rate = housing units with at least one foreclosure filing during the year, divided by total U.S. housing units. Approximate filing counts use 130M housing units pre-2015 and 140M post — both approximations of Census American Community Survey housing-unit estimates.

Year	Foreclosure rate	YoY change	Approx filings
2024	0.30%	+0.04 pp	420,000
2023	0.26%	+0.03 pp	364,000
2022	0.23%	+0.12 pp	322,000
2021	0.11%	-0.05 pp	154,000
2020	0.16%	-0.20 pp	224,000
2019	0.36%	-0.11 pp	504,000
2018	0.47%	-0.04 pp	657,999
2017	0.51%	-0.19 pp	714,000
2016	0.70%	-0.12 pp	980,000
2015	0.82%	-0.03 pp	1,148,000
2014	0.85%	-0.19 pp	1,105,000
2013	1.04%	-0.35 pp	1,352,000
2012	1.39%	-0.06 pp	1,807,000
2011	1.45%	-0.78 pp	1,885,000
2010	2.23%	+0.02 pp	2,899,000
2009	2.21%	+0.37 pp	2,873,000
2008	1.84%	-0.01 pp	2,392,000
2007	1.85%	+0.81 pp	2,405,000
2006	1.04%	+0.46 pp	1,352,000
2005	0.58%	—	754,000

U.S. Foreclosure Rate History, 2005–2024