Distressed Home Sales Reach Record Lows
Sales of distressed homes in Chicago dropped to their lowest point on record in July. The percentage of home sales represented by foreclosures and short sales fell to 4.9%, the first time that distressed sales dropped below 5% since the Chicago Association of Realtors began keeping track in January 2008.
At that time, distressed sales already represented about 9% of all Chicago home sales. The figures increased as 2008 progressed, to reach nearly 40% by December of that year.
The peak of distress locally occurred in February 2012, when more than 55% of all sales were foreclosures or short sales. Although the general trend has been downward for the past six years, the decline hasn’t been linear: distressed sales peak during the winter months.
As a measure of how far the crisis has ebbed, distressed sales represented more than 35% of the city’s home sales in the warm-weather months of 2011 and 2012.
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