I guess it’s good news that the RealtyTrac Foreclosure Market Reports are REALLY BORING these days – at least as far as Chicago foreclosures are concerned. Their June/ Mid-Year Foreclosure Market Report just came out last night and for the nation as a whole June foreclosure filings hit the lowest level since July 2006, which was just prior to the bursting of the housing bubble.
RealtyTrac’s data on Chicago foreclosures is shown below, going back as far as I have the details, and you can see how we have really leveled off in the last few months. Since I don’t know what “normal” looks like for Chicago I have no way of knowing if it’s possible for these numbers to go any lower or if this festering thing has finally bottomed.

Commenting on the national picture, Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, suggested that we are indeed close to the bottom: “Over the next six to nine months nationwide foreclosure numbers should start to flat line at consistent historically normal levels.” He went on to say that “…foreclosures are no longer a widespread contagion threatening to derail the housing market’s return to full health.”

Chicago Shadow Inventory

With Chicago’s foreclosure activity bottoming I like to focus on the shadow inventory – how many homes are in the foreclosure process but not really on the market yet. As you can see in the graph below the number continues to decline so the overhang on the market is decreasing. What you can’t yet see in the graph is that the month-to-month declines are getting somewhat smaller. However, I think we are at least a year away from seeing this number level off.

#foreclosure
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