Illinois has highest foreclosure rate in the country

About 20,690 U.S. properties had foreclosure filings in October, up 5% from September

Illinois has the highest foreclosure rate in the country
(iStock)

Illinois led foreclosures in October, followed by Florida and New Jersey as the rate climbed nationwide for a sixth month in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to scrap a pandemic-era eviction ban. 

About one in every 1,923 Illinois homes faced foreclosure last month, up 82 percent from September and almost triple the number in October of 2019, according to Attom Data. Most of that came in Chicago, where the unemployment rate was 6.8 percent in September, compared with a national average of 4.8 percent. Across the nation, filings rose 5 percent from September to 20,587.

The grim numbers could mask a brighter reality, however. While an increase was probably inevitable, “it’s increasing at a slower rate and most of the activity is primarily on vacant and abandoned properties, or loans that were in foreclosure prior to the pandemic,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of Attom subsidiary RealtyTrac.

In the city of Chicago, one of every 2,284 homes faced foreclosure in October, ranking it fourth among cities with a population of at least 220,000. St. Louis had the highest foreclosure filings followed by Trenton and Miami.

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Across the nation, lenders started the foreclosure process on 10,759 properties last month, an increase of 5 percent from September and a 115 percent jump from a year ago.

Since there has been a moratorium on foreclosure actions, the process is just starting now for most properties, so there are far more foreclosure starts than foreclosures, said Sharga.

“The ratio of foreclosure starts to foreclosure completions will normalize over time as we get back to normal levels of activity,” Sharga said.

For metropolitan areas with more than 1 million residents, foreclosures were highest in New York City, which had 667. Miami followed with 622 and Los Angeles had 430.