Foreclosures Soar In Illinois

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jun 10, 11:01AM EDT

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Foreclosures Soar In Illinois — © stevegeer / E+ via Getty Images

High foreclosure rates were supposed to be a thing of the past. They belong to the period of The Great Recession when foreclosure rates in some cities approached one in every 500 houses. As unemployment rose to 10% then, people often could not pay off mortgages, and adjustable-rate mortgages pushed payments to unsustainable levels. But, echoing that past, foreclosure rates have risen sharply in some states and cities. Illinois is at the center of the problem.

ATTOM’s May 2023 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report showed there were 35,196 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings, up 14% from May the year before. This means one in every 3,967 housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month. Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM, said, “The recent increase in foreclosure filings nationwide indicates a trend that has been observed throughout the year, and what we have expected to occur.”

In Illinois, the figure was one in every 2,144 housing units. It was followed by Maryland at one in every 2,203 and New Jersey at one in every 2,257.

Across America’s largest 223 metros with populations of over 200,000, the number was highest in Lakeland, FL at one in every 1,361. Elkhart, IN was next at one in 1,621, Cleveland at one in every 1,622, Palm Bay, FL at one in every 1,647, and Ocala FL at one in every 1,671.

According to the Census, Lakeland has a population of 115,401. The median household income is $55,029, which is well below the national figure. The poverty rate of 14.4% is higher than the national number.

Interestingly, during The Great Recession, the states with the housing markets that were hammered the most were Florida and Nevada. In Florida’s case, maybe that will happen again.

Also check out: the best cities to rent new apartments

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.