Just before Halloween, a new report reveals a frightening trend in America’s housing market

Something in the real estate market just got a little less spooky this holiday season. Out of all residential properties in the U.S., the number of homes abandoned during the foreclosure process dropped to 3% in the last quarter, an improvement from 3.3% measured over the same time period last year. The data comes from the real estate analytics firm ATTOM’s latest Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure report. Empty houses, known as “zombies,” are a real problem. They happen when a h...