If it’s true — and it is — that the commercial real estate market won’t see a more robust recovery until the housing market stabilizes, than commercial real estate professionals got some bad news regarding two major Midwest markets. According to the latest numbers from RealtyTrac, foreclosure activity jumped significantly in both St. Louis and Chicago in April compared with the same month last year.
Chicago saw its foreclosure rate jump 25.52 percent this April when compared to the same month in 2011. In St. Louis, foreclosure activity rose 28.53 percent. Minneapolis saw a smaller increase in April, 3.44 percent.
There was some good news from the report, though. Detroit saw its foreclosure rate fall 32.22 percent this April when compared to the same month one year earlier.
In Chicago, one in every 321 housing units had a foreclosure filing in April, while in St. Louis one of every 696 houses had a filing. In Minneapolis, that figure stands at one in every 543 housing units. In Detroit, one in every 363 housing units had a foreclosure filing during April.
Across the country, foreclosure activity in April fell 14 percent from the same month in 2011. According to RealtyTrac, one in every 698 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.
What does the future hold? That’s the big question. According to a press release from RealtyTrac, a growing number of potential foreclosures are being sold as short sales. There’s no guarantee, though, that foreclosures won’t jump again as banks work their way through the defaults clogging their books.
