Indiana is known for its relaxed, family-friendly environment. However, the state has gained another distinction: the highest foreclosure rate in the nation.
The foreclosure process involves a lender taking the home after a homeowner stops their mortgage payments. To recoup the outstanding loan balance, the home is sold, often as-is. Research site ATTOM showed in 2025, one in 1,600 Indiana households filed for foreclosure.
Amy Nelson, executive director of the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, said there is at least one clear reason why.
“From the feedback that we have gotten from people who are going through the foreclosure process or people that work with those going through the foreclosure process, it is definitely rising escrow costs,” Nelson explained. “Your mortgage might not be going up but your home insurance and your property taxes are.”
Adding to the issue, wages are not keeping up with costs and consumers face higher prices for their purchases, leaving smaller budgets for housing.
Nelson pointed out Hoosier renters are the most cost-burdened. The National Association of Home Builders said in 2025, nearly half of Indiana’s nearly 813,000 renters paid 30% or more of their income on rent and utilities.
Data gathered by Fair Housing of Central Indiana indicates a substantial number of foreclosures among people who have been in their homes for 10 years or more. After a foreclosure is finalized, the former homeowner often becomes a renter. Nelson describes another troubling trend in central Indiana’s housing market.
“When our foreclosures go to auction, unfortunately, these are more likely to be the homes that are picked up by investors – particularly, out-of-state investors – who then flip these former owner-occupied homes into expensive rentals.”
When it happens, the auctioned homes do not give former owners any new financial opportunities, Nelson added. The Fair Housing Center’s report showed Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson and Marion counties have the largest number of homes owned by out-of-state investors.
7 comments
Those investers destroy the housing market too. They put in renters who dont take care of properties and house values crash in what used to be great neighborhoods. Sec 8 is a big culprit of a downturned market. Landlords dont take care of houses either. Rising prop tax is due to schools and inflated house values by crooked assesors. Insurance will always be thievery!
The operative phrase here is: “cooked assessors”. There is no way my home is worth its assessed value. (I need to replace 3 windows). Based on this I constantly get offers from sleazy investors for this value by mail or phone, but there is no way I could afford to buy another home based on current market prices.
Turns out one of the house sharks actually helped me out when they sent me a mailer saying that the house my parents had a reverse mortgage on actually had equity after I looked at the market value versus what they were offering. Able to avoid the sheriff sale, ended up selling it for top dollar and we close in a month.
This is just one of the many reasons that we need political leadership change in the state. The rich continue to become richer, while the average Hoosier struggles to make ends meet, to feed their family, to afford healthcare, or just simply to afford gasoline!! Our ‘representives’ do NOT represent the needs of the average Hoosier.
As bad as our RINOs are, the other side’s policies actively do exactly the opposite of what you’re thinking they will do.
Ban investment firms from buying single family homes, and ban non-citizens from owning any American property at all. Problem solved!
Indiana used to be a place to have a decent job and an affordable cost of living in which to raise a family. That’s why we tolerated seven months of miserable weather per year. Now our local and state politicians squeeze every possible dollar they can out of us, especially in the form of confiscatory property taxes. Many states limit yearly assessment increases, but no one here will do it, and I’ve been after our legislators for years. Their god is their stomach. I’m done voting. The Republican’ts are almost as bad as the Dummycrats.