Home foreclosures rise in Arkansas, across U.S.

California-based Attom Data Solutions, which tracks national housing and foreclosure data, recently released its August 2022 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

It showed there were 177 Arkansas properties with foreclosure filings in August, one for every 7,713 housing units in the state. That’s up 40.5% from July and 70.1% from a year ago.

It is still one of the lowest rates in the U.S. and ranks Arkansas No. 39.

A home goes into foreclosure when the owner can’t pay the mortgage. Banks begin the foreclosure process by filing a notice of a foreclosure hearing that will decide whether a home is sold at auction. A home is considered “distressed” when it’s under any stage of foreclosure.

There were 34,501 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in August, up 13.6% from July and 117.8% from a year ago.

“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,” Attom executive vice president Rick Sharga said in a news release. “August foreclosure starts were at 86% 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 averages.”

Among Arkansas metros in the report, Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas have two of the lowest foreclosure rates in the country. Fort Smith (one in every 10,093) ranks No. 194 out of the top 223 regions. Northwest Arkansas (one in every 19,247) ranks No. 215.

The central Arkansas metro ranks No. 121, with one in every 4,814 housing units in foreclosure in August.