RealtyTrac’s March Foreclosure Report just came out and it shows fairly static foreclosure activity for Chicago in March vs. February. It’s hard to tell from the graph below but bank repossessions were actually down a bit, offset by increases in default notices and auctions.
The foreclosure report focuses on the first quarter and at the national picture. Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac, sounds this cautionary note about the future:
The low foreclosure numbers in the first quarter are not an indication that the massive reservoir of distressed properties built up over the past few years has somehow miraculously evaporated. There are hairline cracks in the dam, evident in the sizable foreclosure activity increases in judicial foreclosure states over the past several months, along with an increase in foreclosure starts in many judicial and non-judicial states in March. The dam may not burst in the next 30 to 45 days, but it will eventually burst, and everyone downstream should be prepared for that to happen — both in terms of new foreclosure activity and new short sale activity.
But for Chicago the default notices, which are on the leading edge of foreclosure activity, don’t seem to be really growing that much in the last few months.
If you are interested we maintain a page of on our Web site that contains this foreclosure data along with numerous other Chicago real estate market data all in one place. Actually, we maintain this page even if you are not interested.