Zombie Foreclosures Rise As U.S. Vacancy Rates Hold Steady

ATTOM, a curator of land, property data, and real estate analytics, released its third-quarter “2025 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report” Aug. 21, showing that 1.4 million residential properties, about 1.3% of all homes in the United States, are vacant.

The national vacancy rate has changed little over the last three-and-a-half years as the nation has experienced a high-demand housing market.

The report analyzes publicly recorded real estate data collected by ATTOM — including foreclosure status, equity and owner-occupancy status — matched against monthly updated vacancy data. New Jersey graded well in three of the categories analyzed by ATTOM, with data indicating a stable housing market.

ATTOM’s analysis shows that 222,318 properties in the U.S. were in the process of foreclosure in the third quarter of 2025. Of those pre-foreclosure homes, about 3.38%, or 7,519, were “zombie” properties, meaning they had been abandoned by their owner. In the previous quarter, 3.30% of pre-foreclosure homes were considered zombies.

“Vacant and zombie homes can hurt the value of surrounding properties and start a negative spiral in a local housing market,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. “While we’ve seen the rate of zombie homes tick up a tiny bit this quarter, the overall rate of vacant homes and homes in the foreclosure process has remained remarkably steady.”

The biggest year-over-year decreases in zombie rates among states with at least 50 zombie properties were in Georgia (down 25% to 64 from 85), New Jersey (down 21% to 181 from 230), Illinois (down 17% to 646 from 780), and New York (down 10% to 1,461 from 1,630).

Those states that saw the biggest year-over-year increase in the rate of pre-foreclosure homes that were considered zombies were in the West and the South.

The states with the lowest vacancy rates were New Hampshire (0.35%), Vermont (0.41%), New Jersey (0.51%), Idaho (0.51%), and Connecticut (0.54%).

States with the highest vacant property rate in the third quarter of 2025 were in the West and South.

Of the 135 large metro areas in the ATTOM analysis with at least 100,000 residential properties and 100 properties in the foreclosure process in the third quarter, 57%, or 77, had zombie foreclosure rates below the national average of 3.38%.

The metro areas with the smallest proportions of zombie foreclosures were Nashville (0% of properties in the foreclosure process are vacant); Atlantic City (0.3%); Provo, UT (0.4%); Trenton (0.6%); and Raleigh, NC (0.7%).

Three of the five large metro areas with the largest proportions of vacant pre-foreclosure homes or zombie homes were in Ohio — Youngstown, Cleveland, and Toledo.

ATTOM analyzed county tax assessor data for 104.2 million residential properties for vacancy, broken down by foreclosure status and owner-occupancy status in the third quarter of 2025. Only metropolitan statistical areas with at least 100,000 residential properties, counties with at least 50,000 residential properties and ZIP codes with at least 1,000 residential properties were included in the analysis.