RealtyTrac just released its Q1 2012 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report, and it doesn’t contain good news for the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metro area real estate market.
Chicago ranked only 17th among the Top 20 metro areas in the US in overall foreclosure activity, defined as the percentage of homes in foreclosure (1 of every 107), but led the nation on several metrics.
Chicago ranked first in notices of default (NOD) and lis pendens (LIS) filings (the early stages of foreclosure) in the first quarter of the year, with 15,447, just nosing out Los Angeles which saw 15,049 NOD / LIS filings.
Chicago also had the largest inventory of REO (real estate owned / lender owned) properties, with 10,860 compared to second-place Atlanta’s 10,196 and third-place Miami’s 8,486.
Chicago’s 9,147 foreclosure auctions in Q1 put it in fifth place, behind Los Angeles (15,859), Atlanta (13,965), Phoenix (12,584) and Riverside-San Bernardino (9,643).
Chicago’s total foreclosure activity of 35,454 properties came in at a close second to LA’s 35,877.
Overall foreclosure activity in Chicago was up 16.5 percent in Q1 2012 over Q4 2011, and 17.51% over Q1 2011.
The chart spotlights Chicago as one of the metro areas where foreclosure activity is trending up.