Foreclosures surged in January, both in Cook County and nationwide.
Cook County recorded 320 foreclosure starts initiated by lenders last month, up from 265 in December and 279 in November.
The total value of the mortgages underlying January’s foreclosure efforts nearly totaled $174 million, higher than December’s $144 million, but still lower than November’s $237 million.
Here’s where foreclosure court cases began in January:
The median mortgage amount subject to foreclosure cases recorded in January was $192,250, higher than December’s $170,100 and November’s $180,000.
The borrower facing the biggest foreclosure case last month is 1411 S Michigan LLC, an entity linked to Chicago-based Russland Capital Group for a $76 million mortgage on a South Loop apartments building. Los Angeles-based Ares Management was the lender and filed the suit.
While that case represents Chicago’s biggest multifamily foreclosure since the pandemic started, it falls short of the biggest foreclosure case in the last six months 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. Scott Goodman’s Farpoint Development has emerged as a potential buyer of the distressed asset.
Reclaiming its title as Cook County’s most frequent foreclosure-filer, U.S. Bank filed the most new cases in January, at 48 for the month. Newrez LLC — also known as Shellpoint Mortgaging — filed 46.
Both U.S. Bank and Newrez filed nearly double the number of foreclosures last month compared to December, when U.S. Bank initiated 23 foreclosure court proceedings and Newrez started 25.
The two entities frequently top the charts for filing the most foreclosures in Cook County. U.S. Bank had 33 foreclosure starts in November, Newrez LLC had 27.
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Other massive foreclosures filed in recent months include a $114 million complaint 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 case that just ended in a court-ordered auction sale to its lender.
Cook County falls in line with nationwide totals. Irvine, California-based real estate data firm ATTOM found that U.S. foreclosure rates surged in January. Compared to a year ago, foreclosure totals are up five percent. Compared to last month, totals increased by 10 percent, according to the report.