ILLINOIS’ HOMEOWNER PROTECTION ACT TOOK EFFECT THIS PAST APRIL TO PROVIDE BOR-
ROWERS RELIEF FROM THE HOUSING WOES PLAGUING THE STATE.
3 Regions to Watch
The law places a stay on foreclosures for as long as 90 days for troubled homeowners who enter housing counseling. It also gives late-paying homeowners as many as three months to plan foreclosure
avoidance. The law, set to expire in April 2011, also requires lenders and loan servicers to notify late
borrowers about counseling availability but falls short of guaranteeing foreclosure aversion.
One in every 40 Illinois households received a foreclosure notice in 2009, the ninth-highest rank among
states and close to the nationwide average of one filing per 45 households. As the fifth-most-populous
state, Illinois also had the fourth-most foreclosure filings, with more than 131,000 properties receiving
at least one in 2009, according to Realty Trac.
Borrowers’ fate could depend on the state’s still-sliding job market. Illinois’ unemployment rate grew
2 basis points to 11.1 percent this past December compared to November — exceeding the national
mark of 10 percent, which was unmoved from November.
Unemployment
ILLINOIS UNEMPLOYMENT
At the end of ’09, Illinois had lost
about 425,000 jobs since the state’s
employment peak in late 2000, according to a University of Illinois
Regional Economics Applications
Laboratory report. The study predicts a jobless recovery through at
least this year and doesn’t expect
the prior employment high to return
until 2015 or later, perhaps foretelling fragile mortgage demand for
years to come.
Chicago: Mayor Richard M. Daley is pushing for
renewal of a property-tax-relief program that
limits Cook County assessed-value increases
to 7 percent annually. If the program expires
later this year — as state legislators decided in
2007 — about half of homeowners in the nation’s third-largest city could see triple-digit
tax increases. In response, the city is making
grants of $25 to $200 to affected homeowners. March 31 is the deadline to apply.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Mortgages and Delinquencies
Illinois’ mortgage makeup shadows
U.S. averages closely. Fifty-four percent of Illinois homeowners carry a
prime mortgage, compared to 52
percent nationally, according to the
National Association of Realtors.
Only 8 percent of state homeowners have a subprime mortgage, but
almost 29 percent of those loans
were delinquent in the third quarter
of 2009, according to the Mortgage
Bankers Association (MBA). Delinquency rates increased across the
board in Illinois from third quarter
’08 to ’09, the MBA reported.
DELINQUENCIES BY LOAN T YPE
Kendall County: About an hour southwest of
Chicago, this was the nation’s fastest-growing county of 10,000 people or more between
2000 and ’07, according to the U.S. Census
Bureau. Its population nearly doubled —
from 54,500 to 103,500 — between 2000 and
’08. But one in every 14 housing units in the
county received a foreclosure notice in ’09,
according to Realty Trac, making it the state’s
worst foreclosure market.
Source: Mortgage Bankers Association
Springfield: The median price and sales rate
for single-family homes increased in the cap-ital-city area this past November compared
to a year earlier, according to the Capital Area
Association of Realtors. Year-to-date sales and
prices through November placed the metro on
track to finish ’09 ahead of ’08.
Housing Market
Between November ’08 and ’09, median home prices dipped 4. 3 percent statewide to $155,000,
according to the Illinois Association of Realtors. Prices decreased 9.1 percent in the Chicagoland Primary
Metropolitan Statistical Area to $189,000.
Lower prices triggered sales activity, and some of the state’s most-populous counties experienced year-over-year sales and price increases. In Chicagoland, which accounted for almost 66 percent of November ’09 sales, year-to-year home sales increased for the fifth-straight month.
Five of 19 Illinois counties with populations of at least 100,000 reported sales and median-price increases
from November ’08 to ’09, according to the Realtors group and the U.S. Census Bureau. They were:
What the Locals Say
“We never recovered in terms of
employment from the 2000 to
2001 recession. We probably need
to create close to 600,000 jobs
during the next seven or eight
years to get back to the equivalent
level as November 2000.”
— GEOFFRE Y HE WINGS, DIREC TOR,
UNIVERSI T Y OF ILLINOIS REGIONAL
ECONOMICS APPLICATIONS LABORATOR Y
Kankakee: • Sales up 46.9 percent, median price up 0.1 percent to $125,000
Lake: • Sales up 60.7 percent, median price up 7 percent to $198,000
Macon: • Sales up 8 percent, median price up 6 percent to $88,000
Peoria: • Sales up 28 percent, median price up 4. 4 percent to $113,000
Sources: The Associated Press, Capital Area
Association of Realtors, Chicago Sun-Times, city
of Chicago, Illinois Association of Realtors, Illinois
Department of Financial & Professional Regulation,
Kendall County, Mortgage Bankers Association,
Mortgage Banking, National Association of Realtors,
Realty Trac, The State Journal-Register, U. S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, University of
Illinois Regional Economics Applications Laboratory
