A sure-fire sign of an improving real estate market is the fall of foreclosure activity, and luckily those trends are down throughout the nation for the eighth consecutive month, according to RealtyTrac‘s newly released data.
Monitoring foreclosure activity throughout the nation down to a city level, the data showed that foreclosure activity is below 2006 average monthly levels.
However, not all states are measuring equally. RealtyTrac reported 18 states and the District of Columbia posted a year-over-year increase in foreclosures. The highest foreclosure rates were seen in Delaware, Florida, Nevada, Maryland and New Jersey.
A few metro areas witnessed gains in foreclosure activity as well, including Rockford, Illinois; Trenton, New Jersey; Tuscon, Arizona and St. Petersburg, Florida.
In the city of Chicago, one in every 800 housing units was under foreclosure, or a total of 1,480, during the month of May. This is an 8.7 percent fall over May last year and a 7.32 percent increase month-over-month.
Taking into consideration the entire Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro area, there were a total of 5,485 homes in foreclosure or in the process of foreclosure. The metro area saw an annual dip of 14.14 percent but a monthly increase of 11.92 percent.
The monthly uptick was largely because of the monthly increase in Jasper and Lake counties, which posted gains of 100 percent and 131.65 percent, respectively.
On a yearly basis, only three counties posted an increase in foreclosure activity in the Chicago metro area. In addition to Jasper and Lake counties, Newton County saw an annual rise of 33.33 percent. All three counties are in Indiana.
But it wasn’t all bad in Indiana. Porter County posted the largest decrease on both a monthly and annual basis, at 53.13 percent and 60.53 percent, respectively.
In Cook County, foreclosure activity picked up a bit in May over April, by 10.65 percent, but figures are still 10.55 percent lower than they were last year.
For Illinois counties, Kendall, Kane and Grundy all had foreclosure rates falling in the 40 percent range on an annual basis. Will County posted the highest increase of foreclosures in Illinois on a monthly basis, increasing 53.56 percent.
