JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida posted the nation’s highest foreclosure rate in the first half of 2026, with 27,494 properties recording foreclosure filings, ATTOM, a real estate analytics organization, said.
The increase underscores a broader shift in the foreclosure landscape, ATTOM said: foreclosure starts have climbed nationwide while average timelines for completing foreclosures have shortened, a combination that points to growing homeowner stress in some Florida communities and faster lender resolutions that could reshape local housing inventories and markets.
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The numbers
- Florida’s filings equaled about 0.27 percent of housing units — roughly one in every 373 homes — the highest rate of any state in the first six months of 2026. Filings in Florida were up about 33 percent from a year earlier and about 37 percent from two years earlier.
- Nationwide, there were 227,548 properties with foreclosure filings in the first half of 2026, about 0.16 percent of U.S. housing units (one in every 632 homes), up 21 percent from the same period a year earlier.
- Foreclosure starts nationally rose 18 percent year over year; 164,566 properties entered the foreclosure process in the first half of 2026.
Where Florida stands
- Florida ranked second only to Texas in the number of foreclosure starts in the first half of 2026: Florida had 20,358 starts; Texas had 20,739.
- Lenders repossessed (REO) 2,070 Florida properties in the first half of 2026, the third‑most of any state behind Texas and California.
Metro trouble spots
- Several Florida metropolitan areas were among the worst in the nation for foreclosure rates (metros of 200,000 or more):
- Punta Gorda: 0.50 percent of housing units with a foreclosure filing (worst among metros)
- Lakeland: 0.48 percent
- Cape Coral: 0.35 percent
- Jacksonville and Ocala: 0.31 percent each
- In the second quarter alone, Lakeland recorded the worst rate among larger metros — one in every 421 housing units had a foreclosure filing.
Trends and timing
- Lenders completed foreclosures (REOs) on 27,983 U.S. properties in the first half of 2026, up 33 percent from the first half of 2025.
- The average time a property spent in the foreclosure process for homes foreclosed in the second quarter fell to 563 days, the shortest level since 2013, indicating faster completions even as filings rise.
“Foreclosure activity continued to increase in the first half of 2026, but the broader picture remains one of a market that is gradually returning to more typical patterns,” Rob Barber, chief executive officer of ATTOM, said in the report.