Foreclosures, the recession and the housing crisis dominated news headlines in 2008 so it should come as no surprise that REOs in Illinois also were at record highs. ilFLS.com, the Illinois Foreclosures Listing Service released the official REO statistics showing a record 26,000 homes in Chicago land entering REO status through the Illinois judicial foreclosure process.
The high level of REOs in Illinois were a direct result of the growing number of homeowners in foreclosure who were unable to stop the foreclosure process and investors unwilling to purchase the foreclosed properties at Illinois judicial auctions; banks therefore were forced to take the properties back in record numbers.
In 2008, the Chicagoland Area saw 26,000 new REOs for the year, far exceeding the REO numbers for 2007 and 2006, 15,200 and 8,000 respectively.
2008 REO Statistics by Illinois County (2007 REOs in parenthesis)
Cook: 18,261 (10,678)
Dupage: 1,492 (755)
Kane: 1,058 (796)
Kendall: 337 (147)
Lake: 1,814 (1,011)
McHenry: 797 (391)
Will: 1,947 (1,068)
Winnebago: 377 (352)
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