High Percentage of Chicago-Area Home Sales Were Distressed Properties in 2009
March 1st, 2010 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago Neighborhoods, Economic Recovery, Foreclosures, Housing Market
The good news about 2009 is that housing sales began rising again in Chicago during much of the second half of the year. The bad news? A large portion of these home sales in the Chicago region last year were of the distressed variety.
A local real estate company reported that distressed properties accounted for at least 34 percent of home sales reported in the Chicago area in 2009.
This continues a trend that started in late 2007. And it’s not one unique to Chicago. As the nation’s economy began to falter, a growing number of homeowners lost their jobs or saw their annual incomes plummet. Many of these homeowners suddenly began struggling to make their mortgage payments for the first time in their lives.
In 2009, U.S. households received 2.8 million foreclosure filings, according to online real estate data company RealtyTrac. This figure represents an all-time high for the country.
It’s little surprise, then, that so many of the Chicago area’s housing sales last year were of foreclosed and distressed properties. Fortunately, there is help for homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgage bills. The federal government in 2009 launched its Home Affordable Modification Program, which provides financial incentives to encourage mortgage lenders and banks to somehow lower the monthly mortgage payments of struggling homeowners.
If you are having difficulty making your mortgage payments, call your mortgage lender immediately. Even if your lender isn’t participating in the federal program, it might still be willing to modify your mortgage loan. After all, your lender does not benefit from seeing you lose your home to foreclosure.
I’m glad that home sales seem to be rising steadily these days. But I’ll be even happier when a much smaller percentage of these sales comes from distressed properties.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW PROPERTIES NOT YET ON THE MARKET.
[...] only detached single family homes that had sold in that neighborhood in the past six months were distressed properties selling well below the market value of what they would have sold for if they were move-in ready. [...]