Lenders took back 5,794 U.S. properties through completed foreclosures in August, ATTOM reported, a 22 percent jump from July and 42 percent more than a year earlier. The property-data company counts those repossessions, known in the industry as REOs for real estate owned, as the last step of the foreclosure process, after a homeowner has lost the house. ATTOM’s August 2026 report was published Sept. 17 and is the most recent in its monthly series.
The rise in repossessions is steeper than the rise in new trouble. Total foreclosure filings were up 13 percent from August 2025, and foreclosure starts were up 7 percent. A homeowner who is behind on a mortgage today is entering a system whose final stage is moving faster than its front end, which matters for anyone deciding how long to wait before asking the servicer for help.
ATTOM’s September foreclosure report is due in mid-October and will show whether August’s repossession spike held.
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Repossessions pull ahead of filings
The month-to-month swing in completed foreclosures is the headline figure. ATTOM’s July report counted 4,764 REOs, so August added 1,030 more repossessions in a single month. The 5,794 total is 42 percent above August 2025, and HousingWire reported the same figure in its coverage of the report.
Other pieces of the pipeline moved much less. ATTOM counted 40,277 properties with a foreclosure filing in August, up 1 percent from July and 13 percent from a year earlier. Foreclosure starts came to 25,894, down 3 percent from July and up 7 percent from a year earlier. The 5,794 completed foreclosures equal about one repossession for every seven properties with a filing in the month, though the two figures do not track the same homes, since a foreclosure can take many months from start to finish.
ATTOM chief executive Rob Barber summed up the pattern in the report. “Foreclosure activity continues to trend above year-ago levels, particularly in completed foreclosures,” he said. He added that “overall foreclosure volumes remain well below historical norms.”
Texas leads the repossession count
Repossessions were concentrated in a handful of states. Texas had 1,835 REOs in August, far ahead of California with 589, North Carolina with 356, Arizona with 296 and Alabama with 286. Those five states account for 3,362 of the national 5,794, or about 58 percent.
The metro areas follow the state list. Houston led with 448 REOs, Dallas had 402, San Antonio 256, Phoenix 186 and Baltimore 167. Texas metros hold the top three spots, and the Houston and Dallas totals together are larger than the entire count for California.
Texas supplied most of the jump since July
Most of the monthly increase came from one state. Texas recorded 1,265 REOs in July and 1,835 in August, a gain of 570 that accounts for more than half of the 1,030-property national increase. California moved the other way, from 616 to 589. July’s REO count was virtually unchanged from June, which makes August’s 22 percent gain the break from a flat stretch rather than part of a steady climb.
The July report put total filings at 39,906, up 10 percent from a year earlier, and foreclosure starts at 26,648, so August’s starts of 25,894 were lower than July’s even as the year-over-year gain slowed from 10 percent to 7 percent. Barber’s July comment was that “financial pressures remain a factor for some homeowners” and that activity “remains relatively low by historical standards.”
Where one in every 1,547 units had a filing
The highest foreclosure rates look different from the highest repossession counts. South Carolina had the nation’s top rate, one filing for every 1,547 housing units, followed by Nevada at one in 1,920, Florida at one in 2,397, Texas at one in 2,445 and Maryland at one in 2,530. The national rate was one in every 3,569 housing units. South Carolina moved up from second in July, when its rate was one in 2,085, while Nevada, first in July at one in 1,703, slipped to second.
Among metro areas of 200,000 or more people, Columbia, South Carolina, ranked first at one in 1,232. Punta Gorda, Florida, followed at one in 1,249, then Spartanburg, South Carolina, at one in 1,262, Fayetteville, North Carolina, at one in 1,458 and Charleston, South Carolina, at one in 1,501. For foreclosure starts, Florida had 3,189, Texas 3,126, California 2,565, Illinois 1,192 and Georgia 1,189.
What the August numbers say about waiting to ask for help
The full ATTOM report carries the state and metro tables for readers who want their own county’s context. A homeowner who is already behind should look at where the pressure is building, because the states with the highest filing rates, led by South Carolina and Nevada, are not the same as the states with the most repossessions.
The practical sequence is the same everywhere: the mortgage servicer is the first call, written records of every request and answer come next, and any approved repayment or modification plan should be confirmed in writing before a payment is skipped. A repossession counted in August started with a missed payment many months earlier.
ATTOM’s own caution frames the numbers. Barber said volumes remain well below historical norms, so 5,794 is a sharp monthly increase, not a return to the foreclosure waves of earlier years.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire’s editorial team.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
