Foreclosures just hit a 6 year high — 118,727 foreclosure filings in one quarter, up 26% year over year, REOs up 45%

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The U.S. housing market hit a fresh distress milestone this morning. Foreclosure filings in Q1 2026 rose to 118,727, a 26% increase year-over-year. Bank repossessions (REOs) surged even higher, jumping 45% since last year. Analysts are calling this the highest level of foreclosure activity in six years as pandemic-era protections have fully cleared and high interest rates squeeze homeowners.

Q1 filings hit 118,727, up 26% year-over-year.

March 2026 Foreclosure Activity High-Level Takeaways

  • Nationwide in March 2026, one in every 3,131 properties had a foreclosure filing.
  • States with the worst foreclosure rates in March 2026 were South Carolina (one in every 1,996 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Indiana (one in every 2,122 housing units); Florida (one in every 2,124 housing units); Illinois (one in every 2,238 housing units); and New Jersey (one in every 2,266 housing units).
  • 30,334 U.S. properties started the foreclosure process in March 2026, up 17 percent from the previous month and up 21 percent from March 2025.
  • Lenders completed the foreclosure process on 5,229 U.S. properties in March 2026, up 28 percent from the previous month and up 42 percent from December 2025.

U.S. Foreclosure Market Data by State – Q1 2026

Rate Rank

State Name

Total Properties with Filings

1/every X HU (Foreclosure Rate)

%∆ Q4 2025

%∆ Q1 2025

U.S. Total

118,727

1,211

6.30

26.37

14

Alabama

1,996

1,171

23.59

38.71

28

Alaska

198

1,615

10.00

66.39

13

Arizona

2,807

1,137

23.77

31.05

22

Arkansas

947

1,473

3.95

65.27

17

California

12,318

1,189

12.34

15.11

18

Colorado

2,092

1,238

14.07

74.04

29

Connecticut

938

1,644

-3.10

-27.57

4

Delaware

613

757

4.07

1.83

District of Columbia

328

1,101

-6.82

16.31

….

Completed foreclosures surged 45% annually.

“Lenders took back 14,020 properties through foreclosure in the first quarter, a modest 2% increase from the prior quarter but a sharp 45% surge from a year earlier. The rise in real estate owned (REO) activity suggests that a growing share of distressed properties is progressing through the pipeline to completion.

Some states posted particularly steep annual increases in repossessions, including Colorado, Alabama, Washington, Oregon and Florida–each more than doubling or nearly doubling year-over-year volumes.”