Foreclosures spike as banks lower the boom on homeowners

Americans are losing their homes at a faster rate this year as banks make up for lost time after state and federal foreclosure bans expired. 

Lenders repossessed nearly 96,000 properties during the first three months of 2023, up 22% from the same period last year, according to real estate data provider ATTOM. Foreclosures are especially surging in some states — Illinois had the nation's highest foreclosure rate last year at 1 in every 762 homes, followed by Delaware (1 in 812) and New Jersey (1 in 824).

Housing experts in Illinois pointed to the expiration of a foreclosure moratorium the state implemented during the pandemic as one factor behind the jump in people losing their homes. That "created a potential backlog of foreclosure activity," said Geoff Smith, executive director of DePaul University's Institute for Housing Studies in Chicago, noting that many households were technically in foreclosure while the ban was in place.