ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property data, and real estate analytics, has officially published the results from its third-quarter 2025 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, where it revealed that 1.4 million (1,385,902) residential properties, translating to around 1.3 percent of all homes in the United States, are vacant.
With national vacancy rate being consistent for three-and-a-half years, the stated report found that 222,318 properties across the country went through the process of foreclosure during 2025’s third quarter.
From that lot, nearly 3.38 percent (7,519) were “zombie” properties, meaning they had been abandoned by their owner. The stated number was slightly higher than the previous quarter, when 3.30 percent of pre-foreclosure homes were considered zombies, as well as the 3.14 zombie rate recorded during the third quarter of 2024.
Talk about the whole report on a slightly deeper level, we begin from how, quarter-over-quarter, the number of zombie properties went up in 23 states, but having said so, this uptick was mostly by single-digit or small double-digit amounts.
You see, across the 23 states and the District of Columbia where there were fewer zombie properties during the third quarter than the second quarter, the changes were relatively small. Four states, in fact, had no change when it came to the number of zombie properties.
As for states with at least 50 zombie properties, the ones with the biggest year-over-year increase in rate of pre-foreclosure homes, considered as zombies, they included Colorado (up 115 percent from 27 to 58), Washington (up 114 percent from 29 to 62), Iowa (up 84 percent from 64 to 118), North Carolina (up 80 percent from 50 to 90), and Oklahoma (up 72 percent from 43 to 74).
Moving on, states with the highest vacant property rate spanned Oklahoma (2.4 percent), Kansas (2.3 percent), Alabama (2.2 percent), Missouri (2.2 percent) and West Virginia (2.1 percent). On the flipside, states with the lowest vacancy rates were New Hampshire (0.35 percent), Vermont (0.41 percent), New Jersey (0.51 percent), Idaho (0.51 percent), and Connecticut (0.54 percent).
Another detail worth a mention is rooted in the fact that large metro areas were found to have lower zombie rate than the national average. We say so because, from the 135 large metro areas considered with at least 100,000 residential properties and 100 properties going through foreclosure process during the given timeline, 57 percent (77) had zombie foreclosure rates below the national average of 3.38 percent.
If we get more specific, large metro areas with the biggest proportions of vacant pre-foreclosure homes were found to be Wichita, KS (12.7 percent of properties in the foreclosure process are vacant); Peoria, IL (12.3 percent); Youngstown, OH (10.1 percent); Cleveland, OH (9.5 percent); and Toledo, OH (8.8 percent).
Against that, metro areas with the smallest proportions of zombie foreclosures were Nashville, TN (0 percent of properties in the foreclosure process are vacant); Atlantic City, NJ (0.3 percent); Provo, UT (0.4 percent); Trenton, NJ (0.6 percent); and Raleigh, NC (0.7 percent).
Hold on, we still have a few bits left to unpack, considering we haven’t yet touched upon how investor-owned properties are more likely to be zombies.
You see, there were an estimated 24.9 million investor-owned properties reported in the given quarter, of which 3.6 percent (882,336) were vacant.
States with the highest vacancy rates in investor-owned properties were Indiana (7.2 percent), Illinois (6.1 percent), Oklahoma (5.9 percent), Alabama (5.9 percent), and Ohio (5.8 percent). In contrast, states with the lowest vacancy rates in investor-owned properties were New Hampshire (0.9 percent), and Vermont (1 percent).
Among other things, it ought to be acknowledged that an estimated nearly two thirds of the zip codes (1,376 out of 2,164), with at least 1,000 residential properties and 25 pre-foreclosure properties, had zombie foreclosure rates below the national average of 3.38 percent
“Vacant and zombie homes can hurt the value of surrounding properties and start a negative spiral in a local housing market,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. “While we’ve seen the rate of zombie homes tick up a tiny bit this quarter, the overall rate of vacant homes and homes in the foreclosure process has remained remarkably steady.”
