Commercial real estate foreclosures were up by 117% nationally last month over March of 2023, resulting in hundreds of empty office and store spaces.
According to the ATTOM Data Warehouse report, the foreclosures are the result of ongoing higher interest rates and smaller on-site staffs due to the continuing popularity of remote work.
That 117% increase is up from the 97% reported by ATTOM earlier this year, comparing January of 2024 with January of 2023.
Altogether, there were a reported 625 commercial and office real estate foreclosures in March, with California leading the way with 187. That Golden State figure makes sense given that California is the largest state in the country. But even so, the figure represents a dramatic 405% increase over March of 2023.
“California began experiencing a notable rise in commercial foreclosures in November 2023,” the ATTOM report notes, “surpassing 100 cases and continuing to escalate thereafter.”
The numbers were also substantially up in Florida, New York, and Texas. Among those mega states, Texas has seen a 129% jump from March of last year to March of this year, followed by Florida at 107%, and New York, with a 65% jump.
While the 625 figure is formidable, it is still less than the 889 foreclosures recorded by ATTOM in October of 2014, when commercial real estate occupancy was still feeling the lingering effects of the Great Recession.
The trend line sloped gently downward from late 2014 to the spring of 2020, just as the Covid 19 pandemic broke, with a total number of foreclosures at only 141.
Based in Irvine, California, ATTOM Data Solutions specialize in property data services.
By Garry Boulard