YouWalkAWay.com, a national foreclosure agency, recently released a June 2013 survey of its customers and found 54 percent are in pre-foreclosure, meaning they have defaulted on their mortgage but have not received an official foreclosure notice.

Percentage of YouWalkAway clients in pre-foreclosure and average number of months past due. Source: YouWalkAway.com

The share is down from 2012, when 85 percent of YouWalkAWay clients reported they were in pre-foreclosure.

On average, clients who were in pre-foreclosure were 20 months behind on their mortgage payments.

According to the agency, pre-foreclosures are typically unaccounted for since reliable data is hard to find. However, YouWalkAway was able to compile pre-foreclosure data based on its client base to gain a better understanding of how prevalent this type of “shadow inventory” might be.

Data from the agency revealed Georgia has the highest share of YouWalkAway clinets in pre-foreclosure, at 82 percent. On average, clients in the state were behind by 18 months, but still haven’t been served with an official foreclosure notice.

In Minnesota and Arizona, 79 and 74 percent of clients, respectively, were in pre-foreclosure status. Customers in those states were behind by over 20 months.

The state that saw the biggest year-over-year decrease in clients in pre-foreclosure inventory was Florida, where 23 percent of clients were in pre-foreclosure, down from 45 percent in 2012.
The average number of months past due though increased from 17 months in 2012 to 23 months in 2013.