A little over a month ago I posted some data from RealtyTrac that supposedly painted a picture of what is being foreclosed upon in Chicago. The only problem is that the last graph I posted looked rather suspicious since it indicated that almost all of Chicago’s distressed properties were studios. In fact, someone on Cribchatter challenged the legitimacy of that data and it has been haunting me ever since. Finally I realized that with recent changes to the multiple listing service I could actually produce my own analysis, with one important caveat. While RealtyTrac reports on foreclosure activity I can only analyze what is for sale and what has sold. One might expect that in the long run these converge but there is no guarantee.

So, here is a snapshot of foreclosures and short sales in Chicago for the last 30 days. First, there have been 1418 closings in the last 30 days (not a lot). Of those 39.5% were either short sales or bank sales (a lot). However, compare that to the fact that “only” 16.7% of Chicago homes that are on the market are distressed and that tells you that a disproportionate percentage of the homes sold are distressed. In other words, today’s buyers are bargain shopping. No surprise.

Full story is available on Chicago Now