What’s behind a surge in foreclosures in the Bronx?
While foreclosures in New York City dropped slightly in the second quarter of 2026, they nearly doubled in the Bronx, according to recent data from the real estate platform PropertyShark.
First-time foreclosure filings totaled 109 in the Bronx, up from 57 over the same period last year, marking a seven-year high, according to PropertyShark. Across the five boroughs, first-time filings for the quarter declined 5%, falling from 408 to 388.
Christie Peale, CEO and executive director of the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, which advocates for affordable homeownership, recently discussed the foreclosure data with “All Things Considered” host Sean Carlson.
Here is a lightly edited transcript of their discussion.
Carlson: Just to start, why do you think we’re seeing home foreclosures in the Bronx skyrocket and nearly double over the past year?
Peale: Well, foreclosures can be driven by a number of different issues. Obviously, if you miss a payment on your mortgage your lender may start the foreclosure process. That’s called filing a lis pendens with the court. Likewise, if you’ve missed a payment on your property taxes, at a certain point in time, that lien could be sold, and the lienholder could file a foreclosure as well. What we’re seeing in the PropertyShark data is, there is a marked increase in tax-lien foreclosures that were initiated by a trust that was created years ago to buy tax liens from the city. This data has had an outsized impact in the Bronx in the past year because the trust does seem to be initiating a number of foreclosures for debts that go back a couple years. That’s one of the reasons that we’re seeing it in the Bronx, which has a smaller number of one- to four-family homes than the rest of the city. But the trust is taking action in other parts of the city as well.
You mentioned tax liens. Talk more about why that’s played such a role in this. Advocates who spoke to the City Reporter flagged that as a major concern.
In the past, city policy was that when you’re behind on your taxes, they would bundle those debts and sell them into a trust. What’s happened in the Bronx in the past year is, the trust that owns a lot of that old debt has started the foreclosure process. The trust is also doing that in other parts of the city. It’s not having the same impact in terms of numbers, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who are also affected. There have been a lot of changes in policy in the past two or three years based on a decade plus of advocacy across elected officials, advocates, legal services providers and more, to really come up with a much more equitable way for the city to manage property tax debts.
But one of the facets of this is that the Bronx already has the lowest rate of homeownership in the five boroughs. So how does this rise in foreclosures speak to the affordability crisis in the Bronx?
A mortgage foreclosure or a tax foreclosure are the result of some kind of economic shock, whether it’s COVID, an unaffordable loan, loss of income, death of a spouse. There are these one-time economic events that can lead to the potential of a home being lost. Obviously in neighborhoods where there is lower income, there’s higher stresses around property taxes and income. There’s definitely much more stress around the opportunity to maintain homeownership.
Are there any public policies that people at the city or state level, or federal, for that matter, should be pursuing to help correct this? What answers come to mind?
Luckily, the city has made a major change in the way that they address property tax foreclosures. Going forward, they’re really limiting the type of debts that can be foreclosed upon. So it has to be at least $70,000, and it can only be 15% of the property values. That should really help in neighborhoods like the Bronx. Obviously, the most important thing is, if anybody misses a mortgage payment or a property tax bill, is to reach out for help immediately. There are many, many more resources available before you get to the foreclosure stage for property taxes and mortgage foreclosure. In New York state, we’ve done a tremendous amount of work to expand consumer protections for mortgage foreclosure, and also through the property tax reform work. Homeowners have a lot of opportunities to resolve a property tax debt.