Foreclosures Increase in May 2012

According to RealtyTrac, last month banks filed 16,318 foreclosure filings in Illinois.  That’s a whopping 29% increase in just one month.  It’s also a 54% increase over May 2011, a year ago.  As RealtyTrac puts it, that’s one house out of every 325 homes in Illinois.  In Chicago, that’s one out of every 252 homes.  That’s a LOT of foreclosure filings, especially when the real estate market is allegedly improving.

For the first time in 17 months, the foreclosure rate increased over the same month the previous year.  Are banks catching up on their backlog?  Will this large injection of foreclosures create a more favorable market for short sales?  It all remains to be seen.

Banks could certainly use all the help they can get unloading homes that they are in no position to take care.  Last month alone, banks took possession of 54,844 properties nationwide.  And the filing rate for foreclosures has been slowly increasing all year long.  In May 2012, banks filed 205,990 foreclosures nationwide.  Banks certainly are not in the business of property management, or at least, they shoudln’t be. 

With all of the new liability they face, with any luck the banks will ease up on short sales!