About 3.3% of foreclosure filings in the Winston-Salem metropolitan statistical area over the past 12 months were for homes considered as “zombies,” or vacant because the owners have left, according to an Attom Data Solutions third-quarter report released Thursday.
The rate was at 4.5% a year ago and 3.7% in the second quarter.
Attom defines a zombie house as one in which a property owner either has moved or vacated the property, and the U.S. Postal Service is no longer delivering mail there. The home is not necessarily in foreclosure.
The analysis used Attom’s publicly recorded real-estate data — including foreclosure status and owner-occupancy status — matched against monthly vacancy data from the Postal Service.
There are currently 18 vacated homes among the 544 residences in pre-foreclosure status in Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Stokes and Yadkin counties.
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Attom also measured the number of vacant homes owned by real-estate investors for the Winston-Salem MSA. That total was 3,503 out of 217,504 residential properties, or 1.61%, which is up from 1.55% in the second quarter.
The Winston-Salem Regional Association of Realtors has said the only information it has on zombie foreclosures “is what is logged in the Multiple Listing Service by listing agents, or anecdotal from members showing property.”
The Greensboro-High Point MSA of Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham counties has 18 vacated homes out of 683 in pre-foreclosure, or 2.64%. That’s down from 2.9% in the second quarter.
When it comes to the number of vacant homes owned by real-estate investors for the Greensboro-High Point MSA, that total was 4,650 out of 250,748 residential properties, or 1.79%, which is down from 1.84% in the second quarter.
“We see two trends heading in opposite directions — the number of vacant properties continues to decline and the number of zombie properties continues to increase, although neither trend appears to be particularly worrisome,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at Attom.
“Vacancy rates should continue to be low as investor and prospective homebuyers compete for limited inventory. The number of zombie properties should continue to increase slowly as foreclosure activity climbs back from historically low levels due to government intervention.”
For the Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord MSA, there were 23 vacated homes out of 2,203 in foreclosure proceedings, or 1.04%. That’s up from 1% in the second quarter.
For the Durham-Chapel Hill MSA, there were 10 vacated homes out of 322 in foreclosure proceedings, or 3.11%. That’s down from 3.62% in the second quarter.
For the Raleigh-Cary MSA, there were five vacated homes out of 830 in foreclosure proceedings, or 0.6%. That’s down from 0.7% from the second quarter
In North Carolina, there were 144 vacated homes out of 7,324 foreclosure proceedings, or 1.97%. That’s down from 2.25% in the second quarter.