By Gina Martinez
Foreclosures in the city have hit their highest peak since 2009, according to PropertyShark, a real estate analytic company.
PropertyShark has released its annual foreclosure report, focusing on residential properties scheduled for auction for the first time in 2017. PropertyShark revealed that 3,306 homes were so scheduled in New York City, up 58 percent from the 2016 total. The report also revealed that the number of foreclosures in the city has doubled since 2015, when there were only 1,762 foreclosure auctions.
After having peaked in 2008, new foreclosures in the city dropped yearly until they bottomed out in 2012. According to PropertyShark, after 2012, it traced a slow but steady increase in new auctions until 2017, when new foreclosure auctions exploded. “As a result,” the study said, “the number of homes scheduled for auction is now getting close to the levels seen in the aftermath of the financial crisis.”
Queens continues to have the highest number of foreclosures in the city, rising 40 percent from 2016 with 1,260 homes scheduled in 2017. Southeast Queens, which includes Jamaica, Rochdale and Springfield Gardens, once again had the highest number of auctions, with 114 homes scheduled in 2017. Eastern Queens neighborhoods like Fresh Meadows and Glen Oaks saw the lowest number of foreclosures last year.
Although Queens had the highest number of foreclosure cases in 2017, it did not experience the highest percentage increase year-over-year. That was in Staten Island, with a 134 percent year-over-year increase, with 428 first-time foreclosure auctions scheduled in 2017, compared with 183 in 2016.
Bronx foreclosures rose 44 percent from 2016, with 650 homes scheduled for auction, the highest numbers in the borough in a decade, the study said. Brooklyn doubled its foreclosure auctions in 2017, with 827 homes scheduled. The highest concentration of foreclosures was focused on the Eastern part of the borough, including Canarsie and East New York.
Manhattan has seen very little fluctuation in homes scheduled for auctions, According to PropertyShark, the big ticket auction in the borough was the luxury condo development One57.
In a positive development, PropertyShark said, the number of homes that received lis pendens notices, alerting the owners to property lawsuits, went down 4 percent citywide, down from 12,573 in 2016 to 12,072 in 2017.
Reach Gina Martinez by e-mail at gmart
