Bankruptcy INK

The Chicago real estate market still has not been able to turn the corner. According to recent studies, it looks as though things will get worse before they get better. The National Association of Home builders recently mentioned that they don’t expect a turnaround until the start of 2008. Several signs are pointing to this timeframe.

First off, the amount of building permits requested has decreased this past month. “[b]uilding permits, which are often seen as a measure of builder's confidence in the market, sank to an annual rate of 1.43 million in April from a revised 1.57 million in March. It was the lowest reading since June 1997.” Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer  This lends credence to the fact that the housing market has yet to start truly recovering.

Second, housing prices and housing sales have continued to decline. “ Home prices continued to fall in the first three months of this year compared to the same time last year, and the number of houses resold declined even more sharply, according to the National Association of Realtors.” Holden Lewis, Bankrate.com

Lastly, foreclosure rates continue to rise. James Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac, recently stated, “we expect foreclosure activity to at least stay above last year's levels for the remainder of 2007.” Illinois has one of the ten highest foreclosure rates in the United States. This is an unfortunate result of a market that is not selling homes, forcing sellers into foreclosure because they can not afford to keep their properties.

Though the news seems very bad, you can take heart knowing that if you are struggling to sell your home or are in foreclosure, bankruptcy is always there to protect you. This can allow you to keep your home and afford the market time to turn around in the future.