Home loss epidemic spreading in Chicago

The Chicago Tribune reports:

When the subject of foreclosure arises, Lincoln Park isn't usually the first neighborhood conjured up.

But even that vibrant Chicago community is not safe from the dark cloud in the housing industry.


Exposing the downside of record levels of home ownership, the number of newly filed foreclosures in Chicago is up nearly 40 percent through the first four months of 2007, with about four out of five city neighborhoods reporting worsening numbers due to such factors as the impact of rising interest rates on adjustable-rate mortgages, a new study shows.

The raw numbers are small, especially given the short time period involved, but they offer confirmation of a worsening trend, which saw nearly 29,000 foreclosures in the six-county Chicago region in 2006, a one-year jump of 36 percent and the highest level in at least eight years.

In the 2007 results, 11 neighborhoods -- including Lincoln Park, where foreclosures have doubled to 20 -- showed triple-digit percentage increases in the number of foreclosure actions taken against homeowners. They include a 167 percent rise in Mt. Greenwood, from nine to 24 new foreclosures, and a 120 percent boost in Irving Park, from 25 to 55, says Kaneville-based Record Information Services Inc., which compiles real estate data.

They still have cranes going up in Chicago.