Pre-Foreclosure Rates Rise in Washington State Amid Mounting Pressures on Homeowners

A Modest Increase in Numbers Hints at a Deeper Crisis Beneath the Surface

Washington State recorded 366 pre-foreclosure filings in May 2025, a modest number when viewed in isolation. But the story those numbers tell depends on where—and how—you look.

Compared to the previous month (April 2025), when there were 355 pre-foreclosure filings, May saw a 3.10% increase. That may not alarm financial analysts, but for the families behind each of those 366 notices, it’s a change that reverberates far beyond percentages. When compared to the same month last year, the increase is sharper—a 7.65% uptick from May 2024’s 340 filings. This slow but steady rise reflects a tension building across the state, as a tightening economy rubs against the already threadbare safety nets propping up some of Washington’s most vulnerable homeowners.

The Long Road From the 2010 Crisis to 2025’s Uneasy Plateau

To understand where Washington’s housing market sits today, you have to flip back through the pages of a much longer story. In 2010, the state saw a staggering 50,751 pre-foreclosure filings—a grim milestone during the height of the financial crisis. Since that peak, filings declined dramatically, reaching a historic low of 1,483 in 2021. That dip, however, came not from economic reprieve, but from pandemic-era foreclosure moratoriums that held back a flood with temporary legislative sandbags.

Three years later, the tide has begun creeping back. In 2022, pre-foreclosure filings rose to 4,119. They tapered slightly in 2023 to 3,725 and fell again in 2024 to 3,360. So far, the first five months of 2025 have recorded 1,440 filings, keeping pace with 2024’s full-year numbers, suggesting the state is on track to equal or exceed last year’s total.

For homeowners scraping by on the margins, these aren’t just numbers. They are early warning signs of a new wave of housing instability.

A System Under Strain: Inflation, Income Inequality, and Rising Costs

The rise in pre-foreclosures is not occurring in a vacuum. Washington has long struggled with a mismatch between wages and housing costs, particularly in its urban centers. Over the past year, inflation has hovered above the Federal Reserve’s target, eating away at workers’ real incomes even as wages have nominally increased. At the same time, interest rates remain at elevated levels, part of the Fed’s ongoing effort to tamp down inflation.

For homeowners on adjustable-rate mortgages, those rate hikes have translated into monthly payments that rise like clockwork—even as grocery bills, gas prices, and childcare costs climb as well.

Adding to the burden, Washington’s rapidly appreciating housing market, which created windfalls for many middle- and upper-class residents during the pandemic-era boom, has left others behind. Lower-income and fixed-income homeowners—many of whom bought during peak market periods or near-zero interest rates—now find themselves pinched between property tax increases and rockier job prospects.

According to local housing advocates, it is these homeowners who are increasingly falling into pre-foreclosure.

“We’ve Done Everything Right, and We’re Still Drowning”

Consider the story of Tanya Martinez, a mother of two in South Tacoma, whose home entered pre-foreclosure last month. Tanya purchased her modest three-bedroom in 2019, when low interest rates made homeownership feel attainable for the first time in her life. A nursing assistant during the pandemic, Tanya’s hours—and income—were cut last year when the facility she worked at underwent restructuring. With child care costs rising and her adjustable mortgage creeping up by $150 a month, she found herself falling behind on payments.

“We’ve done everything right, and we’re still drowning,” she said. “I work, I follow the rules. I just don’t know how to keep up anymore.”

Tanya’s story is not unique, and that’s what makes it terrifying. Across Washington, similar families are confronting impossible math.