THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
More than 10,000 homes are under foreclosure in Illinois, including more than 1,000 in Kane County.
BY MIKE CETERA
The mortgage mess that has the stock market all atwitter could change how your neighborhood looks. One newspaper examined what it calls an increasing problem of homes simply being abandoned in the wake of a mortgage default.
The result: these homes are being left to rot with overgrown yards and mosquito-infested pools.
How bad is the situation getting? RealtyTrac Inc. reported Tuesday the number of homes facing foreclosure nearly doubled in July from the year prior.
Thousands of Fox Valley homeowners are among those facing foreclosure.
From a Bloomberg story:
Lenders sent 179,599 notices of default, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions last month, a 93 percent increase from a year earlier, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac said today in a statement. California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia accounted for more than half of the country's total filings.
CNN.com reports the Chicago metro area ranks 30th in the country in foreclosures with nearly 35,000 filings, up 45 percent from a year ago. That looks downright pleasant compared to some areas of the country that have seen triple digit percentage increases, including Stockton, Calif., which saw a 256 percent increase in foreclosure filings and New Haven/Milford, Conn., which saw a 547 percent spike.
In Illinois, foreclosure.com reports there are 10,037 homes under foreclosure and another 31,276 in "preforclosure."
Locally, the numbers break down like this:
Kane: 1,014 foreclosures; 1,678 preforclosures
Kendall: 92; 308
DuPage: 1,186; 2,142
LaSalle: 28; 132
Will: 339; 2,117
I would love to see a breakdown of the prices of the homes involved. I saw an article in the Trib that showed a picture of a million dollar home being foreclosed on. How many foreclosures are from people getting in way over their heads financially by having to have a bigger and better house?
Years ago, I used to go bike riding in an adjacent subdivision on the Naperville Aurora border. There was a nice circle drive through the subdivision and very little traffic, making for a nice ride. The homes in that neighborhood were probably over $500,000 each at the time. (I am sure they are more than that now.) I was always shocked as dusk came and indoor lights began to come on. Many of the front rooms of these homes had no furniture. I have since heard that the subdivision has dealt with a lot of foreclosures in the past few years.
Today's society seems to want bigger and better things, whether they can afford it or not. We have moved to a bigger home than we lived in back when I took those bike rides. But we chose one that was still easily affordable to us. Many of our old neighbors have moved on to even bigger and better homes and now talk about how they need loans to pay for their children's college educations while we just access the accounts we set up way back then and write a check to pay for tuition. We still get to have nice dinner's out and are still saving money. Bigger isn't better if it puts you in dire financial straits.
What happened to the comments that were on here yesteday? Is the Beacon censoring thngs that are critical of the Beacon?
CETERA RESPONDS:
Jeremy,
Comments are posted AFTER they are reviewed for relevance, libel and foul language. The general rule of thumb we follow: Stay on topic and limit the personal attacks.
There was one post made to this particular entry that we did not post. It wasn't on topic and it crossed the line by libeling a business in the community (not the paper).
We have no problem with criticism of the paper. It's healthy and can help us do our jobs more effectively. I think you'll find more than a few people have offered up their critiques of our performance.