According to RealtyTrac’s January Foreclosure Market Report the nation’s foreclosure starts reached a record 79 month low in January but things don’t look quite as rosy for Chicago’s foreclosure activity. RealtyTrac attributes a sizable portion of the nation’s decline to legislative changes in California that made it more onerous to initiate a foreclosure. Since California had been in the number one spot for foreclosures this change significantly impacted the aggregate numbers for the country which can be seen in the graph below.
Although my foreclosure activity history For Chicago doesn’t go back quite as far you can clearly see (or, rather, not see) in the graph below that there is no such commensurate declining trend in our history. In fact, overall foreclosure activity ticked up again in January after declining for several months. The only good news is that foreclosures are not happening at anywhere near the level that they were in 2009.
According to the RealtyTrac report Illinois has the distinction of having the third highest foreclosure rate in the country among all states with one in every 375 homes having a filing during the month of January. Illinois also has 2 cities in the top 10 list of cities with high foreclosure rates. Rockford is in the number 4 spot with one in 265 homes having a filing during the month and Chicago was in the number 7 spot with one in 293 homes having a filing.