Here are the foreclosure rates and number of distressed homes across New Jersey, according to April's housing data provide by RealtyTrac, which was broken down to a county-level.
While the housing market rebounds to pre-recession numbers in many states, New Jersey is still struggling to push properties through the foreclosure process, leaving the state with one of the leading foreclosure rates nationwide and the highest number of vacant homes in distress.
As of April, just under one-half of a percent of homes across the United States are in the the foreclosure process, a dip from last year's overall activity at 0.82 percent, which was a nine year low.
In New Jersey, there are currently 64,487 distressed properties that have filed for foreclosure, making for a statewide rate of 2.45 percent, according to data provided by the Calif.-based housing firm RealtyTrac.
How N.J.'s foreclosure rate ranks in U.S.
Just over 4,000 of those properties lingering in the foreclosure process are now vacant -- also known as "zombie foreclosures" -- which is more than any other state, according to RealtyTrac's Q2 2016 Vacancy & Zombie Foreclosure Report.
New York was second in "zombie foreclosures" with 3,352 properties, the report shows.
New Jersey and New York have two of the longest foreclosure processes in the United States as filings flowing through the states' court systems can take up to 18 months longer than the national average of 629 days.
A significant part of that delay in New Jersey has been due to a "massive backlog" in the courts, which experts have said they expect that to be nearing its end.
The Garden State finished the first quarter of the year with one in every 216 housing units in foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac, with the Atlantic City and Trenton metropolitan statistical areas leading the country in distressed properties for areas with a population of at least 200,000.
Metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, are areas established by the established by the Census Bureau that often cross state lines, which is the case with most of North Jersey where the MSAs overlap with areas Pennsylvania and New York. However, the Trenton and Atlantic City MSAs each encompass simply Mercer and Atlantic counties, respectively.
According to April's housing data provide by RealtyTrac, which was broken down to a county-level, Essex County leads the state in foreclosures with 6,367 and a rate of 4.12 percent.
Camden County's foreclosures filings are the second highest with 5,967 distressed properties. Its rate only trails Essex as well with 3.57 percent of its residential properties in foreclosure.
Camden leads the state in "zombie foreclosures" with 563 of its distressed properties left vacant. The county is followed by Burlington and Ocean counties with 468 and 400 vacant properties, respectively.
Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig. Find NJ.com on Facebook.