Two Tampa Bay ZIP codes rank among the nation’s highest zombie-foreclosure rates

ATTOM puts ZIP 33708 at a 38.3 percent zombie rate — Pinellas County, listed in the release as Saint Petersburg — and ZIP 34652 in New Port Richey, Pasco County, at 32.6 percent. Both are among the highest in the country. The national figure is 3.3 percent, so both run about ten times the norm.

A “zombie” foreclosure is a house whose owner has moved out while the foreclosure is still running. Nobody is living there, and nobody has taken title yet. The house sits.

ATTOM’s Q3 2026 Vacancy and Zombie Foreclosure Report, published August 27, 2026, counts 104.6 million residential properties nationally, of which 1.3 percent are vacant — unchanged from the previous quarter and from the same quarter a year earlier. Of the 259,666 properties in the foreclosure process, ATTOM puts 8,482 in that zombie category, or 3.3 percent, slightly below the 3.4 percent it recorded in both the prior quarter and Q3 2025. The report gives no Florida statewide figure, so these two ZIP codes are the whole of its Florida detail.

Why a 38 percent zombie rate happens

A foreclosure stalls with nobody in the house most often when there is an estate or title problem behind it: the owner has died or moved out, and no one is actively handling the property or the loan. Those houses stop being a normal sale, because a buyer using a mortgage generally can’t close on a clouded title — see selling a house in foreclosure and selling an inherited house before probate ends.

Pete’s take

What we see on the ground. In the Pinellas beach communities and western Pasco, many of these houses belonged to older owners, and many are now part of an estate. When the owner passes away or moves into assisted living, the house often sits while the family works through probate, sometimes from out of state. The mortgage stops getting paid. On a reverse mortgage, the loan becomes due. The lender files foreclosure while nobody is living there to respond, and that’s how a house ends up a “zombie”: empty, in foreclosure, and slowly deteriorating.

What heirs should do early. The best time to act is before the house sits empty for months. Contact the loan servicer as soon as possible so they know the owner has passed and who is handling the estate. Start probate, or ask an attorney whether a faster summary administration applies. Keep the house secured and insured. Heirs usually have more options than they realize, including selling before a foreclosure sale, and every month a vacant house sits costs value, whether from deferred maintenance, code violations or break-ins.

Figures are from ATTOM’s Q3 2026 Vacancy and Zombie Foreclosure Report, published August 27, 2026, and have not been independently verified by Investor Trustee Services. ATTOM is not affiliated with Investor Trustee Services and has not reviewed or endorsed this article. ZIP 33708 lies in Pinellas County and ATTOM lists it as Saint Petersburg; 34652 lies in Pasco County.