This week in foreclosed properties for Chicago, the numbers are holding steady. In fact, for properties sold to investors, the exact same total number of properties sold this week as they did last week – 93. Still, the sum of the whole says little about the individual components. Cook County, for example, rebounded this week, jumping back up to a more normal 53 properties sold to investors from only 43 properties sold last week.
Cook County also experienced an influx of new bank owned properties. Last week, the county had 290 and this week there are 320. Unfortunately, Cook seems to be one of the only counties with new properties on the market. Between the seven Chicagoland counties, there were 512 bank-owned properties last week and this week that has fallen to just 480. In other words, what you’ve heard is true – the Chicago market is picking up and it is slowly shifting from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market as inventory decreases and demand increases.
Still, there are a lot of good properties on the Chicago foreclosure market right now and a good deal could be just an auction away. For example, a Cook County home sold this week for less than half of the Zillow estimate. The property value was assessed at $239,209, but the bank started the auction at just $7,590. The 2,500 SF brick home with a 2-car detached garage was defaulted on in mid-2011 and so it’s possible that the low starting price was due to the bank’s desire to finally recoup some of their money. Whatever the reason, one investor got a steal, paying just $11,500 to buy the property as-is.