NYC pre-foreclosures rising but remain low: PincusCo analysis

By Adam Pincus

The number of new pre-foreclosure filings of all types are on the rise in New York City, but remain at historically low numbers.

Overall, the number of pre-foreclosure filings rose from 383 to 521 in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx between September and November of 2020.

But most of that growth was caused by an increase in tax lien foreclosures, which accounted for more than half of the monthly filings.

With the tax lien filings removed, the number of filings per month actually fell over the past two months compared with September. There were 174 pre-foreclosure filings that month, more than the 132 in October and the 139 in November. So far in December there have been 57 through December 16.

PincusCo Media reviewed more than 10,000 court filings over the past four months that were related to real property to find the pre-foreclosure filings. The analysis excluded thousands of filings that appeared to be new records but in fact were re-filings of older cases from five or 10 years earlier. We also added non-mortgage condo and co-op lien foreclosure filings to our tally.

The results show the federal foreclosure moratorium has had a large impact on tamping down the number of foreclosure filings, though some involved in the process believe the volume will increase substantially once the restrictions are lifted.

There has been an average of just 38 commercial mortgage pre-foreclosure filings per month over the past three months, and most are under $5 million.

Some of the largest include the pre-foreclosure filed by Heitman Capital which alleged a $46.3 million loan given to Meadow Partners was in default.

Other large pre-foreclosures include Stormfield Capital Management filing to foreclose on $16 million of loans in four Brooklyn projects  and Popular Bank which filed a pre-foreclosure on a $9 million loan at a 39-unit condo project in Long Island City.