Chicago has not reached the other side of the foreclosure crisis, a new report from the Woodstock Institute has revealed. But with new ordinances like the Cook County Land Bank Authority, the Windy City may be headed in the right direction.
Last
year, Chicago’s six county region saw the highest year-over-year growth
in completed foreclosure auctions since the beginning of the foreclosure
crisis in 2008, according to the Woodstock Institute report.
Foreclosure auctions, which indicate the foreclosure process is
finished, grew by 73.8 percent, from 20,281 auctions in 2011 to 35,244
auctions in 2012.
Foreclosure filings increased by exactly one percent in the city of
Chicago between the first six months of 2011 and first half of 2012,
according to data
compiled by the Woodstock Institute. But the jump in foreclosures was
more dramatic in a handful of struggling, mostly black neighborhoods on
the South Side.
Filings in West Pullman were up 58.7 percent from
155 to 246 in the first half of this year compared to 2011. The number
of foreclosures jumped in Englewood 24.1 percent from 141 to 175 and
climbed in Calumet Heights 54 percent from 50 to 77. Read more »
Completed foreclosure auctions more than doubled
in the Chicago six-county region from the first half of 2011 to the
first half of 2012, according to data put together by Chicago's
Woodstock Institute.
Homeowners and tenants frustrated by the impending threat of
foreclosure called on county leaders to put in place a one
year-stay on evictions.
Cook County Board President Toni
Preckwinkle along with Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart met with a crowd
of more than 100 residents at a community meeting held Thursday on the city's
near West Side. Organizers said the event was intended to give
individuals the opportunity to tell officials their own experiences
with facing the threat of losing their homes, and to explain how
delaying the eviction process could provide some with much-needed —
albeit temporary — relief.
Housing advocates in Chicago and across the country have begun to
channel their frustration with the sprawling foreclosure crisis toward
one man: Ed DeMarco (pictured), acting director of the Federal Housing Finance
Agency (FHFA).
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), which includes several Chicago groups, fired off a letter
yesterday to President Barack Obama demanding that he make a
recess appointment for a new FHFA director. Meanwhile, the Chicago area
foreclosure rate is on the rise. Read more »
Government has tried, with limited success, to address each new
wave of the foreclosure crisis. In Chicago and Cook County, the focus is
increasingly on the surging number of properties vacated because of
foreclosure. Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer (D-Chicago) proposed in May an ambitious way to deal with the problem.
Chicago has not reached the other side of the foreclosure crisis, a new 
Homeowners and tenants frustrated by the impending threat of
foreclosure called on county leaders to put in place a one
year-stay on evictions.
Housing advocates in Chicago and across the country have begun to
channel their frustration with the sprawling foreclosure crisis toward
one man: Ed DeMarco (pictured), acting director of the Federal Housing Finance
Agency (FHFA).
