Housing Bubble
Foreclosures.com reports foreclosure activity in Chicagoland still high
July 01, 2003
SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) --The pace of foreclosures in the Chicago metro area continues at near epidemic levels, according to the northern California foreclosure property investment advisory firm www.Foreclosures.com.
There are 1300-1500 foreclosure cases pending in any given week in the six Chicagoland counties," said company president Alexis McGee. "Our research reported 382 cases added during the last week in May alone."
Foreclosures.com has been publishing foreclosure property data and assisting investors on their website www.foreclosures.com in California for eleven years and recently extended their service to the Chicago metro area, New York City, all of New Jersey and Phoenix AZ.
Ms. McGee went on to say that a troubling aspect of the Chicagoland foreclosure scene was an apparent steady increase in the number of sub-prime loans going into default. "It's not just the inner city," she said, "but in the middle class suburbs as well. The Chicago area has been a prime hunting ground for predatory lenders for several years, and now we're seeing the fallout."
She pointed out that a lot of the economic expansion in Chicago's suburbs had turned on the technology sector, now one of the economy's weakest areas. She also cited the trend toward gentrification and the loss of much public housing in the city that had forced many low and middle-income people to seek affordable housing in the suburbs.
"Now high unemployment resulting from the technology crash is persisting, and many suburban residents have become prime targets for predatory lenders as they tried to hang on to their homes." She added that an informal review by the firm's Chicago research resource indicated that an unusually larger percentage of homes in default were going to sale. "We're used to seeing about 20% wind up at auction, but in the Chicago area it looks like over 30% are actually sold at the sheriff's sale auctions."
Ms. McGee said that her Company's mission "had always been to assist investors in locating troubled homeowners to help them conserve some equity for a new start. That's better than losing everything, including their credit, in a sale on the courthouse steps."
Source: foreclosures.com
