Of the almost 105 million residential properties in the U.S., roughly 1.3%, or nearly 1.4 million homes, sat empty at the start of the second quarter, matching the vacant property rate in the first quarter and one year ago.

But the number of homes sitting empty while in a state of foreclosure has increased slightly, according to newly released data from real estate analytics firm Attom.

Entering the second quarter of 2026, there were 245,376 residential properties in the U.S. going through the foreclosure process, up 6.5% from 230,401 at the start of the first quarter.

Foreclosures have steadily risen in recent quarters, concentrated among certain government mortgage borrowers and loans that have been originated since 2022, when the Federal Reserve hiked benchmark interest rates, sending mortgage rates to more than double their pandemic-era lows.

According to ICE Mortgage Technology, a servicing and mortgage market intelligence provider, 154,000 more mortgage borrowers were at least 90 days late on their payments or in foreclosure in March than a year ago.

Among the roughly 245,000 active foreclosures at the beginning of April, 3.4% were “zombie” foreclosures, where homeowners have abandoned their properties before foreclosure proceedings concluded. That rate is slightly higher than the 3.3% zombie foreclosure rate in the first quarter and the second quarter of 2025, Attom reported Thursday.

“The increase in zombie foreclosures across most states may reflect a foreclosure market that is slowly returning to more normalized levels,” Attom CEO Rob Barber commented in the report. Amid vacancy rates that remain “relatively steady” nationwide, he observed zombie foreclosures “still represent only a small share” of homes in foreclosure.

The company reported that zombie properties increased on a quarterly basis in 38 states and Washington, D.C., with Georgia, North Carolina, Indiana, Iowa and South Carolina leading the pack. Zombie foreclosures in Georgia bumped up 98% to 101 properties, for example, while South Carolina rose 15.4% to 150 vacant foreclosures.

Among overall residential property vacancy rates, Oklahoma, Kansas, Alabama, West Virginia and Missouri led the U.S. at the start of the second quarter, with between 2.1% and 2.4% of homes within their borders sitting empty. States with the fewest empty homes were concentrated in the Northeast, with New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut and Idaho posting vacancy rates between 0.3% and 0.6%.

Attom also flagged that investor-owned homes continue to sit empty at a rate more than double the national rate. More than 890,000, or 3.5%, of the 25.1 million homes owned by institutional investors — defined by Attom as those who own 10 or more properties — were vacant as of the start of the second quarter, the same rate as the first quarter.

Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Alabama had the highest vacancy rates among investor-owned homes, with rates between 6.1% and 7%.