Homeowners aren’t the only ones enjoying property prices hitting near historic highs. Debt collectors are, too, by enforcing collection on “zombie mortgages.”
The loans earned the “zombie” moniker from mortgages that homeowners believed were settled or paid off years before. When debt collectors call and demand payment, it's as if the loan has come back from the dead, noted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. More than 600,000 “zombie mortgages” are alive and well, according to a 2025 Bloomberg News investigation.
