RealtyTrac released their March Foreclosure Market Report this morning and the foreclosure statistics for Chicago indicate a continued moderate pace of activity compared to last year and especially 2009/ 2010. See the graph below.
What I think will be more meaningful going forward is the number of homes in Chicago that are IN some state of foreclosure – basically the shadow inventory. I’ve just started to track that number and it’s pretty flat from last month at 37,473. As soon as I get a few more months of data I’ll create one of my signature pretty graphs.
Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, made his usual remarks about the length of time it takes to complete foreclosures in judicial and non-judicial states and about the result of government efforts to prevent foreclosures. No surprise…politicians are no match for the laws of economics and all the government has succeeded in doing is gum up the wheels of progress. All this simply means that the banks will lose more money and more properties will be sitting in a state of decay for longer periods of time.
