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ZOMBIE FORECLOSURE RATE CONTINUES TO DECLINE IN THIRD QUARTER OF 2024, MARKING LOWEST LEVEL SINCE 2021

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Abandoned Homes in Foreclosure Down 20 Percent Annually; Only One in 14,800 U.S. Homes Sit Empty in Foreclosure, Matching Three-Year Low; Zombie-Property Trends Come Amid Decline in Lenders Going After Delinquent Homeowners

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, today released its third-quarter 2024 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report showing that 1.4 million (1,357,423) residential properties in the United States are vacant. That figure represents 1.3 percent, or one in 76 homes, across the nation – roughly the same as in the second quarter of this year.

The report analyzes publicly recorded real estate data collected by ATTOM — including foreclosure status, equity and owner-occupancy status — matched against monthly updated vacancy data. (See full methodology below).

The report also reveals that 222,934 residential properties in the U.S. are in the process of foreclosure in the third quarter of this year, down 6 percent from the second quarter of 2024 and down 29.3 percent from the third quarter of 2023. Foreclosure activity has declined over the past year following a surge in cases that hit after a nationwide moratorium on lenders pursuing delinquent homeowners, imposed during the Coronavirus pandemic, was lifted in the middle of 2021.

Among those pre-foreclosure properties, about 7,000 sit vacant as zombie foreclosures (pre-foreclosure properties abandoned by owners) in the third quarter of 2024. That figure is slightly above the number in the prior quarter, but down 20.2 percent from a year ago.

The latest count of zombie homes continues a long-term pattern of those properties representing only a tiny portion of the nation’s total housing stock – currently at just one of every 14,776 homes around the U.S. The ratio is about the same as the level of one in 14,724 in the prior quarter, but well down from one in 11,565 in the third quarter of last year, marking the lowest level since early 2021. Zombie foreclosures remain so rare that most local housing markets around the country have little or no issues with the blight and decay those properties can attract and spread.

The portion of pre-foreclosure properties that have been abandoned into zombie status, meanwhile, ticked up a bit, from 2.9 percent in the second quarter of 2024 to 3.1 percent in the current quarter.

“Zombie foreclosures continue to be a mere blip on the radar screen – one of many measures of the overall strength of the U.S. housing market. After some worries about a rise in abandoned homes following the end of the COVID-era foreclosure clampdown, they remain an anomaly throughout most of the country,” said Rob Barber, CEO for ATTOM. “One significant factor is the historically high levels of home equity. This provides homeowners who may be struggling with their mortgage payments a strong incentive to negotiate new payment plans, which in turn reduces the number of foreclosures. As a result, fewer owners are simply walking away from their properties like so many did after the Great Recession of the late 2000s.”

The hold-steady pattern of zombie properties during the third quarter comes as the nation’s housing market boom continues into its 13th year, reversing signs of a slowdown in 2023.

The nationwide median home value shot up 6 percent, year over year, in the Spring of 2024, reaching a new high of $365,000, according to ATTOM’s home sales data. It has increased every year since 2011, more than doubling during that time. Those gains have led to historic improvements in homeowner equity, which has resulted in almost 95 percent of owners with mortgages having at least some equity built up and half owing less than 50 percent of the estimated value of their properties.

Zombie foreclosures mostly unchanged quarterly around U.S. while down annually

A total of 7,007 residential properties facing possible foreclosure have been vacated by their owners nationwide in the third quarter of 2024, up 0.9 percent from 6,945 in the second quarter of 2024 but down from 8,782 in the third quarter of 2023. The number of zombie properties stayed the same quarterly or went up slightly in 26 states – usually increasing by less than 20. The number declined in 24 states.

The biggest percent decreases from the third quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2024 in states that had at least 50 zombie homes a year ago are in Connecticut (zombie properties down 79 percent, from 87 to 18) Oklahoma (down 78 percent, from 199 to 43), Iowa (zombie properties down 78 percent, from 290 to 64), North Carolina (down 74 percent, from 191 to 50) and New Mexico (down 74 percent from 95 to 25).

The only annual increases among states that had at least 50 zombie foreclosures in the third quarter of 2023 have come in Florida (zombie properties up 64 percent, from 1,199 to 1,961), Texas (up 63 percent, from 112 to 183) and New Jersey (up 12 percent, from 205 to 230). Georgia’s number has stayed the same, at 85.

Overall vacancy rates also about the same

The vacancy rate for all residential properties in the U.S. has remained virtually the same for 10 quarters in a row, hovering around 1.3 percent. The latest figure of 1.31 percent (one in 76 properties) is up slightly from 1.26 percent in both the second quarter of 2024 and the third quarter of last year.

States with the highest vacancy rates for all residential properties are Oklahoma (2.36 percent, or one in 42 homes, during the third quarter of this year), Kansas (2.32 percent, or one in 43), Missouri (2.11 percent, or one in 47), Alabama (2.09 percent, or one in 48) and West Virginia (2.08 percent, or one in 48).

Those with the smallest overall vacancy rates are New Hampshire (0.35 percent, or one in 282 homes), Vermont (0.41 percent, or one in 243), New Jersey (0.43 percent, or one in 231), Idaho (0.5 percent, or one in 201) and Utah (0.65 percent, or one in 153).

Other high-level findings from the third quarter of 2024:

Among 170 metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. with at least 100,000 residential properties in the third quarter of 2024, those with at least 100 properties facing possible foreclosure and the highest zombie foreclosure rates are Peoria, IL (23 percent of properties in the foreclosure process are vacant); Cedar Rapids, IA (10.9 percent); Youngstown, OH (8.1 percent); Wichita, KS (8 percent) and St. Louis, MO (7.5 percent).Aside from St. Louis, the highest zombie-foreclosure rates in major metro areas with at least 500,000 residential properties and at least 100 homes facing foreclosure in the third quarter of 2024 are in Cleveland, OH (7.4 percent of homes in the foreclosure process are vacant); Pittsburgh, PA (5.8 percent); Indianapolis, IN (5.7 percent) and San Antonio, TX (5.2 percent).Among the 36 million investor-owned homes throughout the U.S. in the third quarter of 2024, about 939,000 are vacant, or 2.6 percent. The highest levels of vacant investor-owned homes are in Indiana (5.5 percent vacant), Oklahoma (4.6 percent), Alabama (4.4 percent), Missouri (4.3 percent) and Kansas (4.2 percent).Among the roughly 12,000 foreclosed, bank-owned homes in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2024, 12.9 percent are vacant. In states with at least 50 bank-owned homes, the largest vacancy rates are in Kansas (24.1 percent vacant), New Mexico (23.4 percent), Ohio (23.4 percent), Indiana (22.5 percent) and Oregon (20 percent).The highest zombie-foreclosure rates in U.S. counties with at least 500 properties in the foreclosure process during the third quarter of 2024 are in Broome County (Binghamton), NY (15.5 percent of homes in the foreclosure process are vacant); Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH (7.9 percent); Pinellas County (St. Petersburg), FL (7.3 percent); Marion County (Indianapolis), IN (7.3 percent) and Erie County (Buffalo), NY (6.8 percent).Among zip codes with enough data to analyze, 89 of the top 100 where zombie properties represent the largest portions of all homes are in New York, Florida and Illinois. The largest portions are in zip codes 61605 in Peoria County, IL (one in 134 homes); 32206 in Duval County (Jacksonville), FL (one in 238); 13350 in Herkimer County, NY (one in 239 homes); 61603 in Peoria County, IL (one in 241) and 10993 in Rockland County (West Haverstraw), NY (one in 287).

Report Methodology

ATTOM analyzed county tax assessor data for 103.5 million residential properties for vacancy, broken down by foreclosure status and owner-occupancy status in the third quarter of 2024. Only metropolitan statistical areas with at least 100,000 residential properties, counties with at least 50,000 residential properties and zip codes with at least 1,000 residential properties were included in the analysis.

About ATTOM
ATTOM provides premium property data to power products that improve transparency, innovation, efficiency, and disruption in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation’s population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes, and enhances the real estate data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID — the ATTOM ID. The 30TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include ATTOM Cloudbulk file licensesproperty data APIs, real estate market trendsproperty navigator and more. Also, introducing our newest innovative solution, making property data more readily accessible and optimized for AI applications– AI-Ready Solutions

Media Contact:
Megan Hunt
megan.hunt@attomdata.com 

Data and Report Licensing:
datareports@attomdata.com

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SOURCE ATTOM

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Marquis Who’s Who Honors Rupin Chothani for Engineering Leadership

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UNIONDALE, N.Y., July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Marquis Who’s Who honors Rupin Chothani for his leadership in engineering and project management. With more than two decades of professional experience to his credit, Mr. Chothani leverages a unique expertise in fire and petrochemical solutions to find success in his field. As project manager, project engineer and proposal manager at Technip Energies N.V., Mr. Chothani ensures effective results.

Drawn to Engineering

Coming from a family of engineers, Mr. Chothani was naturally drawn to the profession. This inclination was reinforced by comprehensive aptitude and attitude tests administered at the age of 14, which highlighted his strengths in engineering and architecture. Ultimately, this direction reinforced his determination to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering.

By 2003, Mr. Chothani earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Mumbai. After a brief role as a junior manufacturing engineer at Artech Cooling Tower Pvt. Ltd., he completed a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bridgeport in 2006. In addition to these degrees, Mr. Chothani later achieved AutoCAD certification.

Following his graduation in 2006, Mr. Chothani joined CB&I Lummus / ABB Lummus Heat Transfer (now Lummus Technology) as a thermal engineer. Though his work at Lummus Technology lasted only three years, Mr. Chothani was greatly influenced by mentor figures at the company. These mentors, including Ken Catala, Peter Harvard, Chin Dang and Miller Alanath Carter, provided essential guidance.

Building a Family

In December 2008, Mr. Chothani married his wife, Cathy. Along with his son and daughter, his family has contributed richly to his success in engineering and they continue to inspire him to excel. In addition to their support, Mr. Chothani recognizes that there is no alternative to hard work and dedicated learning.

From Lummus Technology to Technip Energies N.V.

Following his work at Lummus Technology, Mr. Chothani worked with Maco Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. By 2011, he joined Complete Heat Transfer Solutions – Environ Energy Systems as a thermal and mechanical engineer. By 2013, Mr. Chothani became a part of Technip Energies N.V. as a furnace mechanical engineer. By 2023, he added to this role and became a project manager, project engineer and proposal manager at the company.

In his current role at Technip Energies N.V., Mr. Chothani is responsible for a variety of essential duties. He manages and executes on engineering projects for ethylene cracking furnaces and heaters, and oversees proprietary technologies. Additionally, he actively coordinates with procurement, logistics, mechanical engineering and process engineering teams to ensure effective results.

Plans for the Future

Moving forward, Mr. Chothani hopes to advance his project management skills, particularly within the firejet industry. At the same time, he aims to share his knowledge of the industry with the next generation of professionals. Outside of his professional ambitions, Mr. Chothani intends to prepare his children to find success, inspiring them and their peers with hands-on experiments and full-day events.

About Marquis Who’s Who®:

Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who’s Who in America®, Marquis Who’s Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Who’s Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms worldwide. The suite of Marquis® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who’s Who® website, www.marquiswhoswho.com.

Marquis Who’s Who
Uniondale, NY
(844) 394 – 6946
info@marquiswhoswho.com
www.marquiswhoswho.com

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COALITION OF INDEPENDENT INTERNET PROVIDERS ASKS CRTC TO FIX ERRORS IN WHOLESALE FIBRE RATES

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Coalition of competitive ISPs say current fibre rates make competition impossible and threatens to harm millions of Canadian consumers

CHATHAM, ON, July 23, 2026 /CNW/ — A coalition of independent internet service providers (the Coalition) led by TekSavvy Solutions Inc. (TekSavvy) today applied to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to review and vary Telecom Order 2026-77, which set final wholesale rates for fibre internet services. In that decision, the CRTC approved wholesale rates for fibre internet services that are higher than the retail prices charged by the large carriers. This makes competition impossible, as independent providers are forced to either sell at a loss or set prices above the large carriers, leaving millions of Canadian consumers without competitive options for essential internet services.

The application identifies key errors that led the CRTC to approve severely inflated final wholesale rates, which make it economically impossible for independent providers to compete. The Coalition argues that the CRTC’s incorrect rates negate the very purpose of Canada’s wholesale framework, which is to foster competition in retail broadband markets. Specifically, the Coalition asks the CRTC to make three key changes to Telecom Order 2026-77:

Eliminate one cost factor that is inconsistent with the CRTC’s established costing principles, which artificially increased fibre wholesale rates by an estimated 25% to 30% (the Adjustment Factor).Reduce another element of the costing that is inflated above reasonable levels: The Coalition calls on the CRTC to reduce the markup applied to wholesale fibre services from 30% to 15%, reflecting declining costs, operational efficiencies, and the need to support competition.Correct technical errors relating to certain wholesale fibre speed descriptions.

“Canadians were promised greater competition for fibre internet services, but these rates make competition impossible.” said Andy Kaplan-Myrth, TekSavvy’s Vice President of Regulatory and Carrier Affairs. “The CRTC must correct these errors to ensure its wholesale rates promote broadband competition that challenges the market power of monopoly incumbents, lowers prices, and increases consumer choice.”

About the Coalition

The Coalition consists of competitive telecommunications providers and industry associations advocating for fair wholesale access to fibre networks and a competitive broadband marketplace that delivers affordable, high-quality Internet services to Canadians, including: TekSavvy Solutions Inc., BC Broadband Association (“BCBA”), Canada-Wide Internet Service Providers Association (“CanWISP”), Fibernetics Inc., ISP Telecom Inc., National Capital FreeNet Inc., Novus Entertainment Inc. and Purple Cow Internet Inc.

About TekSavvy Solution Inc.

Based in Chatham, Ontario, TekSavvy is Canada’s largest independent telecom service company. TekSavvy has been proudly delivering award-winning services and fighting for consumers’ rights for nearly 30 years. TekSavvy is committed to providing quality competitive choice and closing Canada’s digital divide.

SOURCE TekSavvy Solutions Inc.

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Monk Launches Voice Collections, Bringing AI Phone Calls and Callbacks to Accounts Receivable

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Monk’s collections agent, Julia, can now place outbound collection calls and answer inbound AR questions from a dedicated business number, so finance teams can use the channel that collects best without adding headcount.

Multimedia: Watch Voice Collections in action: https://youtu.be/w09PoN1yACE 

NEW YORK, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Monk, the AI-native accounts receivable platform, today launched Voice Collections. Its collections agent, Julia, can now place outbound collection calls and answer inbound customer questions about invoices and payments from a dedicated phone number for each organization. The feature brings the phone, long the most effective collections channel and the hardest one to scale, into Monk’s Intelligent Collections.

Roughly $10 trillion sits in unpaid invoices worldwide, and the average invoice now takes 59 days to clear (Allianz). Most accounts receivable runs on email, and most of it waits. More than half of B2B invoices in the United States are overdue at any given time, and 92% of businesses are typically paid after their due date (Chaser, 2026). Phone calls recover overdue invoices two to three times better than email (Dunwise), yet 91% of finance teams still rely on email as their main follow-up channel and only 56% use the phone, because calling every overdue account by hand does not scale and a single human dunning call can cost $12 to $18 (HighRadius).

Voice Collections gives teams that coverage. Julia can call on the accounts a playbook flags for phone follow-up, and answer when a customer calls the same number back to ask about an invoice, a payment, or a bank detail. Businesses that follow up on 100% of overdue invoices are 76% more likely to be paid within a week (Chaser), and a voice agent is what makes full coverage possible.

Monk’s collections agent is already proven on the accounts it handles by email. Across Monk’s first 100 customers, Julia reaches customers with a 24% higher response rate than standard dunning and resolves 88.2% of collections with zero human intervention. Voice extends that reach to the phone.

“For years the assumption was that customers would not talk to an AI on the phone,” said George Kurdin, Founder and CEO of Monk. “The evidence now points the other way. People engage with a good voice agent, and in AR the phone was always the channel that collected best. We built Voice Collections so finance teams can finally use it at the scale email gave them.”

That assumption is worth retiring. In a University of Chicago Booth field study of roughly 70,000 interviews, people interviewed by a voice AI agent were 12% more likely to receive an offer, 18% more likely to start, and 17% more likely to still be there after 30 days, and 80% chose the voice AI over a human when given the choice. The setting was recruiting rather than collections, but the finding travels: given a capable voice agent, people lean in rather than hang up. A call also does something email cannot, which is secure a verbal promise to pay in the moment.

Built for finance, with the phone agents kept with strict guardrails

Voice in finance has to be constrained, and Monk designed Voice Collections around that from the start. The agent is read-only on the phone. It answers questions, confirms details, and routes the next step. It will not rewrite an invoice, change a payment status, or accept a sensitive payment change by voice.

The agent is also reference-based. If a caller asks about an invoice, Julia asks for both the company name and the invoice number before looking anything up, and it will not search broadly from a single detail. Every inbound and outbound call is kept in the collection record alongside the email history, so a callback is part of the same thread the team already sees, and anything that needs judgment escalates to a person.

“Voice in finance has to be careful by design,” said Joe Zhou, Co-Founder and CTO of Monk. “Julia will not browse across accounts or move money over the phone. A caller has to bring the company name and invoice number before it confirms anything, and every call lands in the record. In finance a 1% mistake is still unacceptable, so we built for that first and added the reach second.”

Teams run autonomous collections on Monk

Monk runs collections for finance teams at companies like Unify, Pump, Siro, and Elate, and Voice Collections extends what those teams already do by email onto the phone.

“We chose Monk to help automate our collections, a process previously demanding several hours a week of manual, one-off outreach,” said Will Stewart, Head of Finance and BizOps at Unify. “Today, our Monk agent is always running in the background and I have a single dashboard to manage AR from.”

At Pump, which manages volume across more than 1,500 customers, Monk has helped collect over $10 million in recent months.

Voice AI is now infrastructure

The timing reflects how far voice AI has come. It has moved from demo to infrastructure: Vapi has processed more than 1 billion calls, Bland handles over 3.5 million calls a week, and ElevenLabs raised a $500 million round at an $11 billion valuation in early 2026. Monk builds Voice Collections on that foundation and adds the part finance actually needs, which is the AR context, the controls, and the audit trail.

Voice Collections is available now as an opt-in feature. Monk configures the dedicated number and call behavior with each organization before turning it on in Collections. See it in action: https://youtu.be/w09PoN1yACE.

About Monk

Monk is the AI-native accounts receivable platform that helps finance teams turn revenue into cash. Its agent, Julia, runs collections, cash application, and forecasting as one connected system. Monk resolves 88.2% of collections with zero human intervention, reaches customers with a 24% higher response rate than standard dunning, reduces DSO by more than 40%, automatically matches 80% of incoming payments with a full audit trail, and gives finance teams back roughly 26 hours a month. Teams onboard in under a week and see results in their first month. More than $1.5 billion in receivables is managed on the platform, including for customers like Profound and ElevenLabs. Monk has raised $25 million and is based in New York.

Media contact
Kendall Warson
kendall@monk.com
+1 415-827-6585

Sources: Chaser 2026 Accounts Receivable research; Dunwise dunning research; HighRadius collection call cost analysis; University of Chicago Booth field study on AI in recruiting; voice AI figures compiled by Enterprise DNA; Federal Reserve data; Allianz Worldwide DSO survey.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/monk-launches-voice-collections-bringing-ai-phone-calls-and-callbacks-to-accounts-receivable-302833768.html

SOURCE Monk

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