Chicago Foreclosures Drop In May

August 3rd, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosures

In Chicago foreclosure numbers dropped by 20%, in May. It does not lead to much hope because foreclosure rate in Chicago makes the city rank among the top five offending cities in USA. In Illinois foreclosure operations were down by 18%. The Chicago metropolitan area consisting of eight counties noted 5,549 foreclosure postings in May, showing a drop of 20% from April 2008. It calculated to a foreclosure rate of 1:524 – this being a third of the national median.

The foreclosure rate of Chicago was more than those of New York and Philadelphia but less than the rates of Dallas and Los Angeles.

RealtyTrac provides the most comprehensive numbers of foreclosure activity across the nation. There were more than 900,000 units in 2,500 counties, in the pre-foreclosure and foreclosure stages. RealtyTrac provides data to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and the Real Estate Journal of Wall Street.

The Chicago market is not as volatile as the others because the city had not seen an abnormal housing boom period like California, Nevada and Florida. This has caused the real estate market to remain level in Chicago unlike the other places where the price of houses has tumbled. Chicago’s average is more than the national average. It means those facing foreclosure still have their equity to cushion the impact.

In Cook County there were 3,721 foreclosure postings in May, marking a 27% fall from April. The foreclosure rate is 1:563. It ranks 6th among the metro counties and the rate is 1.2 times greater than the national average. In Dupage County there were 643 foreclosure listings in May. Here foreclosures increased by 45% from April with the foreclosure rate being 1:522. It ranks 5th amongst the top metro offenders. Kane County noted 424 foreclosure postings in May, while Will County showed 387 foreclosures. Kane and Will counties rank third and fourth respectively. McHenry County stood fifth amongst the metro counties with 232 foreclosures in May.

In Kendall County the foreclosure rate was 1:271 – it being 2.4 times greater than the national median and the highest rate among the metro counties in May. There were 72 foreclosures in the county in this month showing a 5% fall from April.

Statistics are pouring in but solutions remain as elusive as positive results – the primary reason being the slump in the real estate market and the rising fuel and oil prices.