The five states at the epicenter of America’s foreclosure surge, where more than one in

Homes are being snatched back by lenders at alarming rates nationwide – but in five states, the crisis is hitting especially hard. 

Foreclosures, which occur when a bank takes back a home after missed mortgage payments, jumped 14 percent from a year earlier. 

In total, 367,460 US properties faced foreclosure filings in 2025, meaning they were in some stage of being repossessed by a lender, according to ATTOM’s data. 

The storm was most intense in Florida, where one in every 230 homes slipped into the foreclosure pipeline.  It is an unsettling sign in a state already grappling with soaring insurance and home association costs. 

Economist Michael Szanto said Florida’s deepening condo crisis is playing a major role. 

‘Florida is being uniquely affected by a massive rise in assessments for older condo buildings in response to the tragic Surfside collapse,’ he explained, referring to the deadly 2021 condominium disaster that reshaped safety rules statewide.

Close behind, Delaware and South Carolina were also near the eye of the storm, with roughly one in every 240 homes facing a filing.

The trouble didn’t stop there. Illinois and Nevada rounded out the top five, each seeing about one in 248 housing units pulled into the process – a sign the wave is washing across both Midwestern and Western markets.

Foreclosure is when a bank or lender takes back a home because the owner hasn’t made the required mortgage payments

Economist Michael Szanto

What’s striking is that there’s no clear pattern to the top five at all. 

They span beaches and bayous, the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic, red states and blue, boomtowns and old industrial hubs alike. 

That scattershot lineup underscores just how widespread the foreclosure problem has become – this isn’t a regional slump, it’s a nationwide strain showing up in every corner of the map. 

Certainly, there’s no simple ‘one-size-fits-all’ reason why these very different states top the foreclosure rankings. 

Instead, the pressure points tend to be common economic stresses – rising costs outpacing incomes, affordability crunches, and market weaknesses – which are now showing up across the country, not just in one region or type of economy.

Experts warn even more homes may be seized in 2026. ‘If the job market weakens, and it may very well, then we could unfortunately down the road see the increase in the foreclosure rate significantly accelerate,’ said Szanto.   

The strain is showing in big cities, too. Among metros over one million people, Jacksonville led the nation in 2025 with one foreclosure for every 200 homes, followed by Las Vegas (1 in 210), Chicago (1 in 214), and Orlando (1 in 217).

Experts point to tight housing supply and higher mortgage rates locking out would-be buyers. While the numbers look alarming, Attom CEO Rob Barber says they reflect a ‘normalization’ after years of unusually low foreclosures.

The foreclosure storm hit hardest in the Sunshine State, where Florida (pictured) led the nation with one in every 230 homes slipping into the foreclosure pipeline

Delaware (pictured) and South Carolina weren’t far from the eye of the storm, with roughly one in every 240 homes facing a filing

Illinois (pictured) and Nevada joined the front line, each seeing about one in 248 housing units pulled into the process

Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM

In smaller metros, the picture is even bleaker. Lakeland, Florida topped the list at one in 145 homes, followed by Columbia, South Carolina (1 in 165), Cleveland (1 in 187), Cape Coral, Florida (1 in 189), and Atlantic City, New Jersey (1 in 192).

The picture for the housing market — and the broader economy — is growing darker. The US added just about 584,000 jobs in 2025, marking the weakest year for job growth outside a recession since 2003.

As foreclosures climb, neighborhoods are being swamped with cut-price, bank-owned homes that pull down nearby property values. For many homeowners, that means watching their equity shrink simply because of their address.

The spike in foreclosure filings points to deeper financial strain. Homeowners hit by rising taxes and interest costs are falling behind, often missing other payments too, from credit cards to car loans.

All of it is stirring uneasy comparisons to the downturn of 2008.

If Americans are struggling to pay their mortgages, they’re likely cutting back on essentials like food, transportation, and healthcare – an affordability crunch that weighs on economic growth.