Daren Blomquist, Head of Market Economics at Auction.com, has won a 2026 HousingWire Vanguards Award. Over the past year, his research helped servicers rethink disposition timing and auction pricing, gave buyers and sellers a clearer read on shifting supply and demand, and reshaped the industry’s understanding of who really buys at foreclosure auction.
“Using data to discover the true story of what is happening in a market and then finding individual voices to add color and context to that story is my happy place,” said Blomquist. “I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to live in that happy place for most of my career while also adding value to market stakeholders and other industry participants.”
Turning Proprietary Data into Industry Decisions
Blomquist’s work drew on Auction.com’s proprietary marketplace data alongside public sources to give the market concrete information to act on. The “2025 Disposition Strategy Report,” published in December 2025, examined more than 300,000 distressed property dispositions going back to 2018 and found that earlier dispositions consistently produce lower loss severity for servicers, government agencies, and, by extension, taxpayers. Servicers are able to use the findings to adjust disposition strategy.
The “2026 Buyer Insights Report,” published in May 2026, paired buyer survey responses with actual activity on the platform to answer a persistent question: who really buys at foreclosure auction? More than nine in 10 distressed property auction buyers are owner-occupants or Local Community Developers who buy close to home and reinvest in their own neighborhoods, correcting a long-held assumption about the market.
“Daren has a rare gift for turning our marketplace data into something the whole industry can use,” said Ali Haralson, Co-CEO of Auction.com. “This past year, his research pushed servicers to rethink disposition timing, gave our teams a stronger, data-backed case to bring to clients and agencies, and put hard evidence behind the industry’s understanding of who really buys at distressed real estate auctions. He makes the entire conversation smarter, and he does it with real rigor.”
Research that Builds Marketplace Trust
Beyond the published reports, Blomquist appeared in more than 20 webinars, podcasts, and industry conferences over the last year, walking servicers, buyers, and sellers through what the data means for their decisions. His quarterly Auction Market Dispatch reports auction supply, demand, and pricing figures drawn, in part, from Auction.com proprietary data. Industry outlets have cited it, including HousingWire, MortgagePoint, National Mortgage News, Scotsman Guide, and The Wall Street Journal.
That transparency carries a commercial payoff. When both sides trust the marketplace, they use it more. In Q2 2026, the foreclosure auction sales rate on Auction.com rose 12% from the previous quarter and was up 3% year-over-year, according to Auction.com data. The bank-owned (REO) sales rate rose 11% quarter-over-quarter and was up 43% year-over-year.
Blomquist has spent his career at RealtyTrac, ATTOM, and Auction.com building a reputation as one of the most trusted voices in distressed real estate. The award reflects a body of work that starts from the data, builds the evidence in the open, and lets the numbers make the case.
See more of Blomquist’s analysis in action: watch the Disposition Download video series.