"Out of the country's 104.9 million residential properties, 245,376 were in the foreclosure process in the second quarter. Of those, 8,312 properties, or 3.4 percent, were 'zombies,' meaning the owners had abandoned the properties before the end of their foreclosure proceedings," ATTOM said. "The second quarter zombie rate was slightly higher than the 3.3 percent rate posted in the first quarter."

Among states with at least 100 zombie residences, Georgia recorded the largest quarter-over-quarter increase, with the number of such properties rising by 98 percent. Zombie foreclosures rose by 67.2 percent in North Carolina, 42 percent in Indiana, 35.5 percent in Iowa, and 15.4 percent in South Carolina.

In states with at least 50 zombie homes, only two saw a dip in such properties in the second quarter - Washington and New York, which declined by 13.1 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.

A zombie foreclosure typically happens when a homeowner receives a pending foreclosure notice and decides to leave the home before the legally required exit date, leaving the home vacant.

As long as the foreclosure is not completed, the owner continues to be the title holder of the property. The owner can usually pay a lump sum to the lender and pull the property out of foreclosure.

However, if the lump sum is not paid, the property will end up with the lender. Following this stage, the homeowner has to leave the place when the lender requires them to.

ATTOM's analysis of 138 metropolitan statistical areas with at least 100,000 residential properties and at least 100 properties in the foreclosure process showed that Cedar Rapids, Iowa, had the highest share of properties in zombie status at 13.2 percent.

This was followed by Wichita, Kansas, at 12.9 percent; Youngstown, Ohio, with 11.4 percent; and Cleveland and Akron, both in Ohio, at more than 10 percent each.

ATTOM's data also showed that almost 1.4 million homes in the United States were vacant in the second quarter, which represents 1.3 percent of America's residential properties.

"The increase in zombie foreclosures across most states may reflect a foreclosure market that is slowly returning to more normalized levels," Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM, said.

"At the same time, overall vacancy rates remain relatively steady nationwide, while zombie foreclosures still represent only a small share of homes in the foreclosure process."

According to a Jan. 18 post by Rocket Mortgage, the owner of a zombie property under foreclosure will still be responsible for bills.