NYC Foreclosure Rates Double Over 5 Years, Analysis Shows

NEW YORK CITY — New York City's foreclosure rates more than doubled over the past five years and Manhattan recently saw a record-breaking surge, a new real estate analysis shows.

Foreclosure rates grew 114 percent — from 1,424 in 2014 to 3,056 in 2019 — while Manhattan saw a 40 percent spike in foreclosures last year, according to a PropertyShark report.

Yet last year's 3,000-plus foreclosures are the lowest New York City has seen since 2017 — when foreclosures topped 3,300 — which made 2019 the second year in a row rates have fallen, wrote PropertyShark analyst Eliza Theiss.

"All in all, pre-foreclosure incidences have been trending steadily downward," wrote Theiss. "Moreover, last year marked the lowest volume since at least 2014 – the sixth consecutive year of decreasing activity."

The 149 first time foreclosures reported in Manhattan — the only borough to see rates increase last year — are still the lowest total number per borough.

Queens had the most with 1,164 (double its 2014 rate), followed by Brooklyn with 806 (a 187 percent increase), Staten Island with 562 and The Bronx with 375, the study shows.

Staten Island was in "a league of its own" with foreclosure activity 313 percent higher last year than it was in 2014 and The Bronx saw the sharpest decrease with 21 percent drop from 2018, the PropertyShark analysis said.

Manhattan foreclosures clustered in Chelsea's 10019 zip code with 20 first-time foreclosures, researchers said.

Brooklyn, which PropertyClub called the city's "foreclosure hotspot," was home to the zip code with the most foreclosures, 11236, with 120 reported in Canarsie, Flatlands and Mill Basin, researchers said.

PropertyShark analyzed data from single- and two-family homes, condos and co-op unit properties scheduled for auction for the first time in 2019, the report notes.

Read the full analysis here.