Illinois Housing Market Lower than National Average

 Posted on November 28, 2012 in Estate Planning

At the end of September in Illinois, almost eight percent of home mortgage loans were delinquent. The state remains one of the worst in the nation for foreclosures, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The quarterly delinquency survey was one of three reports that were recently issued that show the housing market in Chicago and the surrounding areas continue to remain struggling to pick back up. Foreclosure proceedings were started against 1.29 percent of Illinois homes, along with the addition to delinquent loans, in the third quarter. The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process totaled about 6.83 percent. This percentage of loans in Illinois that entered the foreclosure process was higher than any other state in the country, with the exception of New Jersey and Florida.

Of all mortgage loans nationally, 7.64 percent of all one to four unit residential properties were delinquent by the end of September. For judicial states like Ilinois, in which court systems process foreclosure actions, the foreclosure rate decreased a little bit to 6.6 percent. The rate for nonjudicial states is only 2.4 percent.

Economists at the trade group said the numbers in point to continued improvement throughout the country's housing market, although Illinois has been marked as having a slow moving judicial process. Some states will recover at a more accelerated speed than others. Nationally, foreclosure starts have not been this low since 2007.

Although there have been many positives in the housing market, delinquent mortgage outlooks remain doubtful. Close to 60 percent of martgages that are considered very seriously to be delinquent originated from 2005 to 2007.

In October, foreclosure notices were issued to 12,212 properties in the six county Chicago area according to RealtyTrac. That is an increase of 3.6 percent from September and 18.6 percent from October 2011. There were 3,117 homes in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, and Will counties repossessed by lenders in October alone.

The negative impact is slowing getting better as the percentage of Chicago area homes that had more owed on them in loans than what they were worth fell to 36.6 percent in the third quarter from 39.2 percent in the second quarter. The total equity loss for those 639,495 homes was $51.1 billion according to Zillow. However, nationally, negative equity fell to 28.2 percent of homes from September from 30.9 percent in June.

If you are planning to sell your home, contact an experienced Estate Planning attorney. Be prepared and get all you can for your estate when you are selling. The Illinois Office of Stock, Carlson & Asso. LLC help you with your estate.