Though total foreclosure filings dipped slightly from January, foreclosure starts and completed foreclosures both remained higher than a year ago in February — the 12th consecutive month of annual increases, new data shows.
That rise reflects recalibration rather than systemic weakness, housing economists broadly agree, but comes as mortgage payment stress builds for government borrowers, seen in spiking delinquency rates for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
However, foreclosures remained “well below historic norms” overall last month, noted Rob Barber, CEO of Attom, commenting on the real estate analytics firm’s latest monthly report on foreclosure activity, released Thursday.
Including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, foreclosure activity increased steadily during 2025 after remaining artificially subdued during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic on account of flexible loss mitigation programs for borrowers that officially ended last October.
Approximately 367,460 U.S. properties had a foreclosure filing last year, a 14% jump from 2024 and a 3% gain from 2023, but 25% lower than 2019, Attom data shows. A total of 38,840 residential properties nationwide had foreclosure filings in February, a 4% decline from 40,534 the previous month but 20% higher than a year ago.
Illinois and Indiana replaced Maryland and Nevada on the list of states with the highest foreclosure rates last month, joined by repeat offenders Delaware, Florida and South Carolina. Florida counties also topped a recent list of local housing markets most at risk of decline from economic shocks.
The end of pandemic-era loss mitigation programs has led housing economists to warn that foreclosure activity may begin to rise more sharply in the second half of 2026, especially among FHA-insured borrowers who recorded serious delinquency rates of nearly 5% at the end of January, up from about 3% in May.
That growing performance stress among FHA loans was specifically cited this week by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) as driving a contraction in mortgage credit availability for FHA loans in February. The 30-day delinquency rate among FHA borrowers climbed to 11.52% in January, the MBA said.
Among metro areas with populations at or exceeding 200,000 people in February, Attom found that Lakeland, Fla., exhibited the worst foreclosure rate in the country at about roughly one filing per 1,075 housing units, after posting the third-worst rate in January.
Foreclosure starts fell 2% over the month to impact just under 26,000 properties in February, about 14% higher than a year ago. Real estate owned transactions or “completed foreclosures” totaled 4,077, a 14% drop from last month but a jump of 35% from last year.
With the MBA pegging the national delinquency rate at 4.26% through the fourth quarter, more than half of U.S. metro areas (184 out of 384) reported annual increases in delinquency rates at the end of December, according to real estate analytics firm Cotality.
“That breadth of localized increases suggests that pockets of households are coming under greater financial strain, even if it’s not yet visible in the national aggregates,” said Molly Boesel, senior principal economist at Cotality, last month.
