Home foreclosures in the U.S. were up 28% in March compared to the previous year, according to the property-data provider ATTOM. U.S. foreclosures were at a six-year high for the first quarter, up 26% compared to the same period last year. Liens by homeowner associations (HOA) have also been on the rise with an 8.6% jump in 2025 compared to 2024, according to Benutech.
Distressed homeowners point to an average 12% increase in home insurance rates, rising utility costs, an average 26% jump in HOA fees, and increased property taxes due to higher home assessments. In the first three months of 2026 nearly 119,000 homes were lost to foreclosures.
Of the homes not in foreclosure, some 11.6% of their mortgages are delinquent. However, the true delinquency rate is much higher than this 11.6% figure, which was calculated based on outstanding loans in the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) mortgage-backed securities (MBS). This federal agency took the most troubled mortgages out of Ginnie Mae’s MBS pool of loans, and thus are not reflected in the 11.6% figure.
Several pandemic-era housing assistance programs have ended and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has tightened financial restrictions on loan modifications. Since October, distressed homeowners with an FHA-backed mortgage must pay three consecutive monthly payments before they are even allowed to apply for any adjustments to the mortgage. These FHA programs were designed to help first-time home buyers and lower-income Americans obtain financing. Industry insiders expect that up to half of the FHA borrowers will not be able to make the three consecutive payments, causing an estimated 250,000 families to lose their home in the next 12 to 18 months.
