Q: Gerald, I just saw an article about a spike in zombie foreclosures this year during the pandemic. What’s a zombie foreclosure and what’s the impact? Derrick, Bayonne, NJ A: Zombie foreclosures rose recently to almost 4% of the over 200,000 homes already in the process of foreclosure–this step in the process before the foreclosure sheriff sale is called pre-foreclosure. A pre-foreclosure becomes a zombie foreclosure when the owner vacates the home when the foreclosure process begins, despite the fact that the property remains in the homeowner’s name. Zombie foreclosures were up 3% from Q2 2020, even though the overall number of homes in the process of foreclosure declined 16% due to the foreclosure moratorium. Vacated properties in foreclosure rose […]
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