By Hank Russell
The state of New York earned the dubious honor of being one of the top five states in the nation when it comes to foreclosure starts and repossessions.
According to a report from ATTOM Data Systems, an Irvine, California-based curator of land, property and real estate data, during the third quarter of 2025, New York had 3,234 foreclosure starts — fifth in the U.S. behind Texas, which had a nation-leading 9,736 foreclosure starts, followed by Florida (8,909), California (7,862) and Illinois (3,515).
A foreclosure start takes place when a borrower fails to make a certain number of payments on their mortgage, according to Investopedia. In New York State, once a borrower misses their mortgage payments, they receive a 90-day pre-foreclosure notice, in which the lender must mail the borrower information on how to get help within that timeframe. If the borrower is unable to meet the requirements, then the foreclosure case is started.
The state was also fifth in completed foreclosures with 644 real estate-owned (REO) properties, ATTOM reported. Texas led the nation with 1,288 REOs, followed by California (1,132 REOs), Florida (762 REOs) and Pennsylvania (708 REOs). New York was in the top five with 5,269 total properties with filings. Florida was No. 1 with 12,393 total properties with filings. Rounding out the top five were Texas (10,584) and Illinois (5,764).
New York also had the fourth-longest average timeline to complete a foreclosure in Q3 2025. Based on ATTOM’s data, the Empire State lagged at 1,867 days, which was behind Louisiana (3,632 days), Nevada (2,667 days) and Rhode Island (1,929 days). In addition, New York’s timeline was more than three times longer than the national average. In the U.S., the foreclosure process took an average of 608 days, which is down 6% from Q2 2025 and a 25% decline from the third quarter of 2024.
However, when it comes to foreclosure rates, New York was 21st. According to ATTOM, one out of 1,621 residential properties were foreclosed upon. That was a 2.71% decrease from the previous quarter and 1.22% less than during the third quarter last year.
ATTOM also reported that 35,602 properties nationwide filed for foreclosure last month, which is 0.3% lower than in August but 20% higher than in September 2024.
“In 2025, we’ve seen a consistent pattern of foreclosure activity trending higher, with both starts and completions posting year-over-year increases for consecutive quarters,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “While these figures remain within a historically reasonable range, the persistence of this trend could be an early indicator of emerging borrower strain in some areas.”