Cook County Foreclosures Decreased in November

Lenders are hitting Chicago-area property owners with foreclosure complaints among the most often of any U.S. city.

After the number of new foreclosure court cases filed in Cook County declined at the end of the summer and the start of fall, creditors filed new notices to property owners at a relatively steady clip last month, and up significantly compared to September, public records show.

Lenders started 279 foreclosure court proceedings in November, down from 284 in October. While takeaways declined last month, it’s still higher than 251 in September, public records show.

The total value of the mortgages underlying November’s foreclosure efforts was just over $237 million, lower than October’s $323 million.

Here’s where foreclosure court cases began in November:

Leaflet map created by Adam Farence | Data by © OpenStreetMap, under ODbl.

The median mortgage amount subject to foreclosure cases started in November was $180,000, nearly on par with October’s total of $179,911. By comparison, the median foreclosure amounts for July, August and September were $161,947, $165,000 and $171,845 respectively, TRD’s analysis shows.

Reclaiming its perch as the entity with the most foreclosure starts, U.S. Bank began 33 foreclosure proceedings in November, taking the top spot back from Newrez LLC, which filed 27 foreclosure starts. Newrez filed the most foreclosures in October with 29, while U.S. Bank began 17 that month.

The borrower shouldering the biggest foreclosure case filed last month is 111 West Jackson Holdings, an entity led by New York City-based Melohn Group, for a $105 million mortgage tied to the property at 111 West Jackson Boulevard. French corporate and investment bank Nataxis originated the loan in 2017.

Its less than half of October’s — and the year’s — biggest foreclosure case in Cook County: A $237 million complaint initiated by Société Générale against the owner of 161 North Clark Street. The borrower in that deal is a venture of the South Korean postal service that decided to walk away from the asset instead of trying to turn around its troubled financial situation.

Other whopping big foreclosures include a $114 million foreclosure filed against Adventus Realty Trust in May for a delinquent loan on the Riverway office building near O’Hare International Airport, and Skokie-based American Landmark Properties with a $96 million foreclosure.

Nationwide, new foreclosure filings declined, according to Irvine, California-based real estate data firm ATTOM. One house of every 4,347 in the county had a notice of foreclosure filed against it last month. For completed foreclosures last month, Chicago had one of the highest amounts in the nation at 104, compared to New York City with 100.