Foreclosure Rates in Spartanburg and Columbia Lead the Nation for January

In news regarding the property market, Spartanburg and Columbia, two cities in South Carolina have led the way in the United States in terms of the rising rates of foreclosure in January, an unfortunate trend that has been impacting a significant number of cities across the country.

Highest Foreclosure Filing Rates in US

Data gathered from the recent Foreclosure Market Report by ATTOM Data reveals a stark representation of the intensifying tension in the housing market. In January, one in every 1,579 homes in Spartanburg bore the brunt of a foreclosure filing, positioning the city at the highest rank among U.S. cities containing more than 200,000 citizens.

Nipping at its heels is Columbia, registering a foreclosure filing in one out of every 1,651 homes for the same month. Other cities that completed the top five spots in cities with the highest foreclosure filing rates were Cleveland, Detroit, and Las Vegas.

South Carolina’s Growing Foreclosure Rate

Sadly for South Carolina, the state posted the seventh-highest overall rate of foreclosures filed for January across the US, and hailed as the number one in the South, registering one foreclosure filing in every 2,994 homes. This rate denotes a steep increase of more than 25% compared to last year, placing South Carolina with the 12th fastest-growing foreclosure rate in the nation—approximately five times higher than the national average for this duration.

Meanwhile, other states and regions seemingly fared better. ATTOM’s information showed that twenty states and the District of Columbia observed a decrease in foreclosure filings since January of 2023.

National Foreclosure Scenario

Overall, the situation nationwide shows a worrying trend, with foreclosure filings seeing a rise of 5.43% last month compared to the same time in 2023. The increase was even more substantial from December last year, with an over 10% leap.

Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM, associated the national increase in filings to a typical “post-holiday progression of filings through the legal system”. But he also posed additional factors that could be at play, including “escalating interest rates, inflation, employment shifts, and other market dynamics.”

Silver Lining: Eviction Filings

However, it’s not all bad news. Data tracked by the Eviction Lab showed that eviction filings in Greenville and Charleston ended the year of 2023 on a somewhat positive note—lower than their respective start rates in the same year. Greenville concluded the year with an eviction filing rate of 22%, slightly below its annual average of 24%. In contrast, Charleston wrapped up the year with an eviction filing rate aligning with its yearly average at 18%.

Despite the ascending trend in foreclosure rates in certain parts of the country, these statistics around eviction filings provide a flicker of hope for the future of the housing market.