In January, one in every 1,579 homes in Spartanburg saw a foreclosure filing, according to the latest Foreclosure Market Report by ATTOM Data, released Tuesday.
That rate of filings was the highest among U.S. cities of greater than 200,000.
In second place was Columbia, where one home in every 1,651 saw a foreclosure filing last month. Rounding out the five cities with the highest foreclosure filing rates in January were Cleveland, Detroit, and Las Vegas.
Among states, South Carolina had the seventh-highest overall rate of foreclosures filed in January, and the highest rate in the South -- one in every 2,994 homes.
That rate was more than 25 percent higher than it was a year earlier, giving South Carolina the 12th-fastest growing foreclosure rate in the country; five times the national average for the year.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia saw a drop in foreclosure filings since January, 2023, according to state-by-state numbers from ATTOM. Overall, the U.S. saw foreclosure filings increase 5.43 percent last month, compared to a year earlier. They rose more than 10 percent from December.
Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM, attributes January’s uptick in filings nationally to a “typical post-holiday progression of filings through the legal system.” But other factors may be at play, Barber said, “such as escalating interest rates, inflation, employment shifts and other market dynamics.”
Nick Kremydas, CEO of SC Realtors said in an email Wednesday that context is important.
"While foreclosure percentages have increased, the actual number of foreclosures is still historically low," he said. "When you combine that with continued tight inventory, it would take much more significant foreclosure activity to really affect the market."
Meanwhile, eviction filings in Greenville and Charleston, as tracked by Eviction Lab, finished 2023 below where they were at the year’s start.
Greenville’s eviction filing rate closed the year at 22 percent (just shy of its overall yearlong average of 24 percent), while Charleston closed 2023 with an eviction filing rate of 18 percent, its yearlong overall average.
