‘Zombie’ Foreclosures Are Most Common in These Midwestern Cities

While the percentage of “zombie” properties across the country has declined slightly, the rates in a handful of Midwest cities come in much higher than the national average, according to a new report.Zombie property is a term used to describe a home that was abandoned by its owners before foreclosure proceedings were finalized. In some cases, the foreclosures are never completed and homes not repossessed by the lender, meaning the house remains in the name of an absentee owner.Among homes in the foreclosure process, 3.3% were vacant and abandoned by their owners in the third quarter, according to recent report from Attom, a provider of property data and AI-powered analytics.The plague of zombie properties is the highest in a few Midwest metropolitan areas. Attom analyzed 140 cities with at least 100,000 residential properties and at least 50 properties in the foreclosure process. The cities with the highest zombie rates were Youngstown, OH, in which 12.1% of homes in foreclosure were vacant; Cedar Rapids, IA, with 11.6%; Baltimore, MD, with 11.5%; Fort Wayne, IN, with 11.1%; and Akron, OH, with 10.5%.“A zombie property is created by a gap between two events that people assume happe...