Yes, foreclosures are public record. In every state the filing that starts a foreclosure is either recorded with the county or filed with a court, and both are open to anyone. To find out if a specific house is in foreclosure, search the county recorder's index by the owner's name for a notice of trustee's sale, notice of default, or lis pendens, then confirm the sale date with the trustee. It is free and takes about half an hour.
The reason it is not a single search box is that "foreclosure" is not one document. It is a sequence, and which piece of it becomes public first depends on your state. This page is the single-address version: you have a house, you want to know its status. If you want the whole county's list every week, that is a different workflow, covered in how to find pre-foreclosures.
Both live inside the recorder and court sections of our guide to public records in real estate.
Step 1: Know which system your state runs
| Judicial foreclosure | Non-judicial foreclosure | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Florida, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, most of the East | Washington, California, Texas, Arizona, most of the West |
| How it starts | Lender files a lawsuit | Trustee follows the deed of trust's power of sale |
| First public record | Complaint on the court docket, plus a lis pendens cross-recorded at the county | A notice recorded at the county recorder |
| Where to look | Superior or circuit court case search, then the recorder | The recorder, then the trustee |
| Typical clock | 6 months to 2 years | 4 to 6 months from default to sale |
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's foreclosure explainer covers the two systems at the borrower level. What matters for a lookup is the second row: in a judicial state you search the court first, in a non-judicial state you search the recorder first.
Washington is non-judicial, and it has a wrinkle worth knowing wherever you are, because a lot of national advice gets it wrong.
Step 2: Get the owner name from the assessor
Foreclosure documents are indexed by the borrower's name (the grantor on the deed of trust), not the street address. So start at the county assessor, pull the exact owner of record and the parcel number, and copy the name as spelled. That is the same property owner lookup by address you would run on any lead.
If the owner is an LLC, search the LLC's name. If the assessor shows a recent transfer to a bank or a trustee, you may already have your answer: the foreclosure happened and you are looking at the aftermath.
Step 3: Search the county recorder by name
Open your county's recorded-documents search and search the owner as grantor. What you are looking for, in order of how far along the foreclosure is:
| Document | What it means | Public? |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of default | The lender has declared the loan in default and started the clock | Recorded in California and most non-judicial states. Served, not recorded, in Washington |
| Notice of trustee's sale | The auction is scheduled, with a date | Recorded everywhere it exists |
| Lis pendens | A lawsuit affecting the property is pending, which in a judicial state is the foreclosure | Recorded, and on the court docket |
| Trustee's deed or sheriff's deed | The auction already happened | Recorded |
| Notice of discontinuance, rescission, or reconveyance | The foreclosure was cancelled or the loan was cured or paid | Recorded |
That last row is the one people skip. A notice of trustee's sale from 2024 with a discontinuance recorded three months later means the house is not in foreclosure. Read the whole file, newest first.
The Washington detail: under RCW 61.24.030, the notice of default is transmitted to the borrower by mail and by posting or personal service. It never reaches the county. The first document the public sees is the notice of trustee's sale, which RCW 61.24.040 requires the trustee to record with the county auditor at least 90 days before the sale, and to mail and post as well. So a Washington house can be in formal default for months with nothing on the record. That is not a gap in your search; it is how the statute works.
Where to search in my counties: King County's Landmark Web, Pierce County's ARMS, and the Snohomish County recorded documents search. Every county has an equivalent; the document types above are near-universal.
Step 4: Check the court docket
In a judicial state, this is the foreclosure. Search the county's superior or circuit court by the owner's name for a case with the lender as plaintiff. The docket shows every filing and the current stage: complaint, judgment, sale order.
In a non-judicial state you still check, because three things stop a trustee's sale and all three are court records: a bankruptcy filing (federal, searchable on PACER), a receivership, or a lawsuit by the borrower challenging the sale. A recorded notice of trustee's sale plus an open bankruptcy case means the sale is stayed, however soon the notice says it is.
Step 5: Confirm the auction with the trustee
The notice of trustee's sale names the trustee and the sale date. Trustees postpone constantly, and postponements are announced at the sale, not re-recorded. So the recorder can show a sale date that passed weeks ago on a house that has not sold. The trustee's own website, or the legal-notice newspaper the statute requires the notice to run in, is where the live status is.
In Washington there is one more status to know about. Under the Foreclosure Fairness Act, RCW 61.24.163, a borrower referred by a housing counselor or attorney can enter mediation with the lender, and referral has to happen no later than 90 days before the sale. A house in mediation is in foreclosure and on hold at the same time. The federal foreclosure help page lists the HUD-approved counselors who make those referrals.
Step 6: Rule out a tax foreclosure
Mortgage foreclosure is not the only kind. The county treasurer forecloses on delinquent property taxes on its own track, with its own notices and its own sale, typically after three years of delinquency in Washington. None of that shows up in a search for trustee's sale notices. Pull the parcel on the treasurer's site and look at the delinquent years. The tax delinquent property list explains how that list works and why it is a distress signal on its own.
Step 7: Read what came before the filing
Here is the part that changed how I source deals. A foreclosure filing is the last public record a distressed house produces, not the first. By the time the notice records, the owner has been in default for months, every list vendor has the address, and a dozen investors have mailed it. It is the textbook lagging indicator.
The same house usually left an earlier trail at the city. I joined every recorded Seattle sale from the last two years to our code violation database:
- 37,082 Seattle sales were recorded from June 2024 through September 2026. 13.6% of those addresses carried a code violation at some point.
- 244 of them were foreclosure-coded: a foreclosure sale reason on the assessor's record, or a trustee's or sheriff's deed. 73 of the 244 (29.9%) carried a code violation, more than double the base rate.
- Of the 51 foreclosure sales where the violation predates the sale, the median first violation landed 1,846 days before the deed recorded. About five years.
Source: King County Assessor sales records for Seattle joined to the FlaggedLeads code violation database by normalized address. Co-occurrence, not a probability that any violation leads to foreclosure; most never do.
Five years is a long head start. Choose one metro and start a 14-day trial, with no card required. If the house you are checking has an open case and no foreclosure notice yet, you are early. If it has both, you are late, and so is everyone else.
Frequently asked questions
Are foreclosures public record?
Yes. A judicial foreclosure is a lawsuit, and court dockets are public. A non-judicial foreclosure runs on a notice of trustee's sale that the trustee must record with the county, and recorded documents are public. The only piece that may not be public is the notice of default in states like Washington, where it is served on the borrower rather than recorded.
How do I find out if a house is in foreclosure for free?
Get the owner's name from the county assessor, search the county recorder's index by that name for a notice of trustee's sale, notice of default, or lis pendens, and check for anything recorded afterward that cancels it. Then confirm the sale status on the trustee's website. Every step is free.
Can you look up foreclosures by address?
Usually not directly. Recorder indexes run on names and parcel numbers, so convert the address to an owner name at the assessor first. Some counties support parcel search, but Pierce County's own disclaimer warns that its parcel index is incomplete, so a name search is the reliable route.
How long after the notice of default is the house sold?
In Washington the notice of trustee's sale must be recorded at least 90 days before the sale, and the notice of default precedes it by at least 30 days, so roughly four months from default to auction if nothing pauses it. Judicial states run longer, often a year or more, because the case moves at the court's pace.
Does a foreclosure show up on a title search?
Yes. The notice of trustee's sale, the lis pendens, and the trustee's deed are all recorded, so they appear in the recorder's index that a title search walks through. What a title search will not show is the served-only notice of default or the city's code enforcement file.
What is the difference between pre-foreclosure and foreclosure?
Pre-foreclosure is the window after the lender's first formal default notice and before the auction, while the owner still holds title and can still cure or sell. Foreclosure is the sale itself and what follows. Investors work the pre-foreclosure window, and how to find pre-foreclosures covers pulling that list.