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BY Taylor Hatmaker

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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 homeowner going through foreclosure proceedings abandons a property before the process wraps up. The name is often fitting, as zombie properties tend to show signs of neglect, delayed maintenance, and deterioration that can negatively influence the surrounding area and drag property values down along with it.

In the last quarter, Attom found 269,195 properties undergoing the foreclosure process.…