Counties' foreclosures increase slightly, still below spring highs

The number of metro-east residents filing for foreclosure increased during the past two months, but numbers are still below figures recorded earlier this year.

The Madison County circuit clerk's office filed 116 foreclosures in September after filing 94 in August.

In St. Clair County, the circuit clerk's office reported 109 filings in September and 95 in August.

Those numbers are still lower than the 163 foreclosures filed in St. Clair County in March and the 153 in Madison County in January. Foreclosure statistics plummeted during April and May, when only 26 filings were reported in St. Clair County and 41 in Madison County, before rising again in June. Throughout the summer and early fall, local monthly foreclosure totals have teeter-tottered between 90 and 120 filings.

Al Suguitan, executive director of the Greater Gateway Association of Realtors in Glen Carbon, tracks the housing market in Madison County and surrounding counties. He said that although some economists have declared that the nation's recession is over, a relatively high foreclosure rate coupled with a 10 percent unemployment rate is not going to help the nation's housing market.

"If this is what we call a jobless recovery, that is not going to be very beneficial for millions who are out of work," Suguitan said. "That's not going to be very beneficial for them unless they can be retrained and positions open up. The quicker the economy can gain its footing in terms of the service and manufacturing sector, I think you'll see that the number of unemployed go down. I think what is key is to the housing recovery is an employment recovery."

Realtor Association of Southwestern Illinois Executive Director Stephanie Tonnies could not be reached for comment Tuesday about the new St. Clair County numbers.

Another issue that has driven foreclosure rates in the Chicago area is mortgage fraud. Suguitan said that has not been an issue in the metro-east, but he is aware of it as Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has been investigating such cases elsewhere.

"It's something we don't think about because we usually think it's caused by life-altering situations," he said. "But it's also when someone is not able to make payments anymore because someone put them in a house they could not afford or contributed to misstatements on their application. More power to the attorney general for going after those folks."