The good news is the number of foreclosures in Brooklyn last year, but the bad news is the borough still has the top zip code foreclosure hotspot, according to Property Shark’s 2019 Annual New York City Foreclosure Report.
The report found that Brooklyn foreclosures slid 9% last year as compared to 2018, recording 806 unique cases, the second-highest volume in the five boroughs. In 2018, there were 882 foreclosures.
However, the foreclosure hotspot was in zipcode 11236 – which covers parts of Canarsie, Flatlands, Marine Park, Mill Basin and Bergen Beach – with 120 first-time foreclosures, accounting for 15% of the borough’s annual volume.
This was also the highest number of foreclosures observed in any NYC zip code in 2019; it represented 4% of all first-time foreclosures reported last year in NYC.
Brooklyn also had the second-highest increase in foreclosures when considering its five-year evolution; last year’s figures were a whopping 187% higher than its 2014 foreclosure cases.
Moreover, in the same period, pre-foreclosures decreased at the second-lowest pace in NYC with a drop of only 27%.
To top it off, Brooklyn was one of only two boroughs where the number of pending legal foreclosures went from 2019 as compared to 2018. The 3% uptick resulted in 3,197 pre-foreclosures, the highest figure for any borough.
Citywide, the report found that Queens had the most first-time foreclosures recorded in 2019 with 1,164 – the highest number of all five boroughs and double its 2014 levels. That figure represented 38% of all NYC foreclosures last year, despite the fact that the borough saw a 4% year-over-year dip in foreclosure activity.
With 96 unique cases – or 8% of the borough’s foreclosure volume – the Queens’ foreclosure hotspot was zip code 11434, encompassing areas of Jamaica, South Jamaica, Hollis and St. Albans.
Queens also saw a steep drop in pre-foreclosures, which was down 20% in 2019 as compared to 2018. Compared to 2014 levels, Queens had 45% fewer pre-foreclosures last year.
Manhattan was the only borough where first-time foreclosures went up with a total of 149 cases in 2019, a 39% increase in first-time foreclosures.
It must be noted, however, that the 107 first-time foreclosures recorded in 2018 represented an unusually low figure for Manhattan, which had been averaging 140 foreclosures annually in the previous three years.
The highest concentration of foreclosures in Manhattan last year was recorded in the 10019 zip code. Covering parts of Clinton and Chelsea, 10019 saw 20 first-time foreclosures last year – 13% of the borough’s yearly total.
