Area mortgage woes rose in 2012
By Cindy Wojdyla Cain ccain@stmedianetwork.com January 16, 2013 9:10PM
Foreclosure filings rose in 2012 in Will, Grundy and Kendall counties. | Sun-Times Media file photo
Updated: February 19, 2013 1:56PM
More Will County property owners experienced mortgage trouble last year than in 2011.
Will County’s 237,501 housing units were hit with 9,591 foreclosure filings in 2012, up 29.84 percent from 7,387 in 2011 but down 13.01 percent from 11,027 in 2010.
There were only 3,154 filings in 2006 before the nationwide housing industry collapse derailed fast-growing Will County.
Last year, Will County ranked sixth in the state for foreclosure filings — which include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — according to statistics compiled by Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, which markets foreclosure properties at www.realtytrac.com.
Kendall County remained first in foreclosure filings in the state, a position it has held for several years.
Of 40,321 Kendall County households, 2,306 experienced foreclosure filings last year, up 49.55 percent from 1,542 in 2011, but down 11.72 percent from 2,612 in 2010. In 2006 the total was 316.
Grundy County ranked 11th in the state with its 409 foreclosure filings on 19,996 households. That total was up 70.42 percent from 2011’s 240 filings and 23.19 percent from the 2010 total of 332. The 2006 total was 96.
The U.S. total was 2.3 million filings on 1.8 million U.S. properties, down 3 percent from 2011 and down 36 percent from the peak of 2.9 million properties with foreclosure filings in 2010.
The RealtyTrac report shows that 1.39 percent of all U.S. housing units had at least one foreclosure filing last year, down from 1.45 percent in 2011.
In Will County, 4.04 percent of housing units were affected, 5.72 percent in Kendall County and 2.05 percent in Grundy County, all higher than the national rate.
In Illinois, 2.58 percent of the housing units were affected last year, ranking the state fifth, and foreclosure filings were up almost 33 percent in Illinois from 2011.
RealtyTrac’s report also noted that:
In January 2013, 10.9 million homeowners nationwide — representing 26 percent of all outstanding homes with a mortgage — were seriously underwater.
2012 foreclosure filings increased mostly in states that use a judicial foreclosure process and they decreased more in states that use a streamlined non-judicial process.
Foreclosure filings in December dropped 10 percent from the previous month and 21 percent from December 2011. December’s total was the lowest monthly total since April 2007 — a 68-month low.
Florida, Nevada and Arizona had the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.
