Triad foreclosures more than double during 2022

The foreclosure rate in the Winston-Salem metro area more than doubled during 2022 to 629 as more financial institutions and lenders reopened their pipelines, national real-estate research firm Attom Data Solutions reported Thursday.By comparison, the Winston-Salem MSA had 284 filings for all of 2021.Forsyth County, as is typical, had the most in the area with 382, followed by Davidson County with 128, Stokes County with 51, Davie County with 42 and Yadkin County with 26.The Greensboro-High Point MSA had 801 filings in 2022, compared with 354 in 2021.Guilford County, also as typical, had the most at 575, followed by Randolph County at 138 and Rockingham County at 90.Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 in which he urged banks, credit unions and other lenders 'not to charge customers for overdraft fees, late fees and other penalties.' The statewide eviction moratorium expired June 30, 2021.Most foreclosures that proceeded in 2020 and 2021 were related to vacant and abandoned properties.For the 10-county Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro, there were 2,410 filings in 2022, compared with 927 filings in 2021. Mecklenburg County had 882 of the filings.For the four-county Durham-Chapel Hill metro, there were 313 filings in 2022, compared with 179 in 2021.

Durham County had 284 of the filings.For the three-county Raleigh-Cary metro, there were 794 filings in 2022, compared with 319 in 2021. Wake County had 587 of the filings."Eighteen months after the end of the government's foreclosure moratorium, and with less than 5% of the 8.4 million borrowers who entered the CARES Act forbearance program remaining, foreclosure activity remains significantly lower than it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,' said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at Attom.'It seems clear that government and mortgage industry efforts during the pandemic, coupled with a strong economy, have helped prevent millions of unnecessary foreclosures.'Sharga said that while 2022 foreclosures jumped compared with 2021, "the majority of homes in foreclosure are not being repossessed by lenders."'Our recent homeowner equity shows that 93 percent of borrowers in foreclosure today have positive equity, which they appear to be leveraging in order to avoid a foreclosure by refinancing their mortgage or selling the property at a profit."It seems likely that this is a trend that will continue in 2023.' Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.