Dollar volume of pre-foreclosures rises to $3.39B in 2022

By Adam Pincus

In 2022, the total number of commercial foreclosures in New York City above $1 million declined slightly, but the aggregate loan value rose modestly, according to data compiled by PincusCo Media.

Last year, there were 257 commercial foreclosures of $1 million and up totaling $3.39 billion, compared with 269 foreclosures totaling $2.9 billion in 2021. That’s a drop of about 5 percent in the number of pre-foreclosure actions, but the value of those distressed loans rose by 17 percent.

The most active lender to file a pre-foreclosure action was Valley National Bank, with 10 filings, followed by SKW Funding, Toorak Capital Partners, Hirshmark Capital and Maguire Capital Group.

Valley National Bank’s highest value pre-foreclosure was a $15.1 million loan secured by 257 Washington Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, filed in August 2022.

The top filers by the value of the loans was a very different list, essentially a ranking of the top pre-foreclosure actions. In fact, five of the top seven were securitized debt packages filing to foreclose on loans.

The top filers changed significantly from 2021. Valley National Bank was not on the top 10 in 2021, filing just two actions that year. In contrast, PeerStreet and Sharestates Investments were very active in 2021 but did not make the top 10 this year.

Just over $1 billion of the pre-foreclosure loans were filed by securitized loans. In addition, despite the list of active filers, the majority, or 149 of the pre-foreclosure actions, were brought by a lender that only filed one action last year, according to our records. There is a caveat that there are some entities where the true lender could not be ascertained, so there are some actively foreclosing lenders we are not aware of.