Even though Illinois does not crack the top of the list for foreclosure activity, Chicagoland itself is close to the top in several categories related to distressed properties.
In terms of percentages, Chicagoland is second in two rankings of distress in the country’s largest metros in CoreLogic’s October 2015 report. It falls behind the New York City metro in foreclosure inventory– New York’s being the highest at 3.6 percent, and Chicago’s at 1.7 percent.
New York also leads and Chicago follows for the ranking of highest serious delinquency rate. The New York metropolitan area has a rate of 6.3 percent, and Chicago follows with a serious delinquency rate of 4.6 percent.
Illinois is not a state that otherwise ranks near the top for largest foreclosure inventories. New York and New Jersey lead on the list of largest foreclosed inventory expressed as a percentage of properties with mortgages by state. They are the top two on that inauspicious list with New Jersey at 4.5 percent and New York 3.6 at percent.
Even though Chicagoland is a standout in those two scary categories, CoreLogic’s latest report, for October 2015, indicated that the foreclosure malaise that befell the whole country has largely abated.
- The current foreclosure rate of 1.2 percent is the same as the November 2007 rate.
- 463,000 homes were somewhere in the foreclosure process in October 2015.
- Last year, 589,000 homes were in the foreclosure pipeline.
- The inventory of distressed properties has slid every month for the past 48 months.
Also noted in the report was the fact that foreclosure inventory was down 21.5 percent year-over-year. Completed foreclosure this past October were down 27.1 percent. There were 51,000 homes foreclosed on in October 2014, and only 37,000 homes completed the foreclosure process in October 2105.
Prior to the most recent housing market collapse, an average of about 21,000 homes finished the foreclosure journey each month. And, since homeownership in the US hit its peak in 2004, about 8 million homes have shook out of the foreclosure process.
“We are heading into 2016 with the lowest foreclosure inventory in eight years thanks to escalating home values and progressive improvement in the U.S. economy,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, in a statement. “Equally encouraging is the drop in mortgage delinquency rates reflecting the stronger labor market and tighter underwriting since 2009.”
But, as the New York and Chicagoland numbers show, there are still pockets where inventories are substantial as a percentage of the total, and where homeowners are still falling behind on mortgage payments.
