RealtyTrac just came out with their February foreclosure activity numbers and it shows Chicago, like most of the nation, plumbing new lows in activity. I’ve only been collecting the data for two years now – hence the qualification in my headline. However, based upon my limited data, February was at the lowest level during the last 2 years as shown in the graph below – down 34% from last month and down 54% from last year at this time.
Don’t get too excited though. As RealtTrac points out in their release “…the industry is in the midst of a major overhaul that has severely restricted its capacity to process foreclosures. We expect to see the numbers bounce back, but that will likely take several months.”
One other interesting point to note from the RealtyTrac release: Illinois is one of the top 10 states in foreclosure activity.