Chicago Foreclosure Lawyer Blog

In our last update on this topic, we gave some raw numbers from the National People's Action report on Bank of America and Chicago foreclosures. A quick analysis of those numbers indicates that although it holds a large number of properties, Bank of America has been less than quick to get homeowners into permanent modifications.

This has had a significant effect on Chicago neighborhoods, in particular those on the west side of the city, as well as some on the far north. Bank of America filed 202 foreclosures in Chicago's West Ridge neighborhood in 2009. When you combine West Ridge's foreclosures with those of neighboring Rogers Park, you have a total of 297 foreclosures filed by Bank of America within the northeast corner of Chicago. When looking at the neighborhoods of Austin, Humboldt Park and West Town, Bank of America is responsible for 369 foreclosures west of the recently-gentrified Near North neighborhood. On the South Side, West Lawn, Chicago Lawn, West Englewood and Englewood total 348 Bank of America foreclosure filings for 2009.

These neighborhoods are further impacted by these foreclosures and others -- empty properties provide safe haven for drug dealers, gangs and an increasing homeless population. These empty buildings also make it much more difficult for other distressed home owners to pursue remedies like a short sale. The decline in property values has left 1 in 4 homeowners underwater on their mortgages -- the increase in foreclosures in this neighborhood is bound to drive property values even lower.

Do these neighborhoods also indicate a trend of predatory lending in Chicago? Perhaps. However, with neighborhoods like Lakeview and Lincoln Square facing over 50 Bank of America filings each, it may be a bit difficult to establish a serious trend. Add to that the fact that Bank of America inherited a large amount of this debt from Countrywide. It may very well be that predatory lending occurred. The bigger story, in my opinion, is that Chicago's biggest forecloser is not doing much to work with borrowers.