Chicago foreclosure activity up 35% in third quarter

(AP) — The Chicago area saw the second-biggest jump in the U.S. in third-quarter foreclosure activity in big cities.

The Chicago-Naperville-Joliet area saw a 35 percent increase over the third quarter last year, according to RealtyTrac Inc. One in every 84 properties in the area received a foreclosure notice, according to RealtyTrac, an online market for distresses properties.

Chicago also had the third-highest number of homes repossessed by lenders during the quarter — 12,568 — behind the Phoenix metro area's 14,317 and the Miami metro area's 12,963, RealtyTrac said.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area registered the sharpest annual increase — 71 percent — among the 20 biggest metro areas. One in every 129 households received a foreclosure filing.

California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona remain the nation's foreclosure hotbeds, accounting for 19 of the top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates between July and September, RealtyTrac said.

Those states saw housing values surge during the housing boom years. When the boom ended, values collapsed and foreclosures soared.

But the latest data show that many of the metro areas in those states saw a decline in the number of households receiving foreclosure-related filings, while many cities in other states saw a spike in foreclosure activity.

"The epidemic is spreading from the states at the ground zero of the foreclosure problems out into areas that hadn't been previously affected," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice-president at RealtyTrac.

The trend is the latest sign that the nation's foreclosure crisis is worsening as homeowners facing high unemployment, slow job growth and uncertainty about home prices continue to fall behind on their mortgage payments.

In all, 133 out of 206 metropolitan areas with at least 200,000 residents posted an annual increase in foreclosure activity in the three months ended Sept. 30, RealtyTrac said.

The firm tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions — warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

Eleven out of the nation's 20 largest metropolitan areas saw foreclosure activity increase in the third quarter compared to the same period last year.