In Chicago neighborhoods gripped by foreclosures, it’s becoming alarmingly apparent that everybody loses.

Communities are seeing more homes fall into foreclosure and become vacant. Once reclaimed by lenders, it is taking longer to sell them; 33 percent of single-family foreclosures made in the past three years were unsold at the end of 2008, leaving area residents with boarded-up, unsafe eyesores on their streets.

When foreclosures do sell, it’s for an average of 30 percent less than the amount due on the mortgage, meaning the lender is taking an even greater loss on the loan.

A new report tracking what happens to Chicago’s vacant, lender-owned, single-family homes, scheduled to be released Wednesday by Woodstock Institute, shows that the problem is particularly acute in the city’s African-American neighborhoods.

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