The number of homes hit with foreclosure filings in the Chicago metropolitan area rose 13.9 percent in January from December as lender documentation problems, which slowed foreclosures here and across the country, continued to be resolved, the latest RealtyTrac report shows.
The report revealed 13,750 homes received a filing, or one in every 276 homes. That was a 13 percent increase from January 2011. Besides a less than 0.5 percent year-over-year increase in November 2011, the last annual increase in the area was in September 2010, when there was a 37 percent jump in homes receiving fillings.
Illinois was among four states that saw filings rise year-over-year for the first time in 12 months, joining Florida, Indiana and Pennsylvania. In Illinois, 14,349 homes received a filing, up 13.5 percent from December and up 9 percent from January 2011. Illinois ranked seventh in the rate of filings, with one in every 369 homes receiving a filing last month.
Nationally, filings edged up 2.9 percent to 210,941 from December, but dropped 19.3 percent year-over-year.
“Although overall foreclosure activity was down from a year ago for the 16th straight month in January (nationally), we continue to see signs on a local and regional level that the frozen-up foreclosure process is beginning to thaw,” RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer Brandon Moore said in a statement.
RealtyTrac expects the pattern of increasing foreclosures to continue in the coming months, given the finalized mortgage and foreclosure settlement reached in early February between five of the nation’s largest lenders and 49 state attorneys general, including Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
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