Lisa Simpson
Apr 16,2010
In: Foreclosure

Foreclosure situation in Kendall County Grim as it Continues to Spike

Foreclosure situation in Kendall County grim as it continues to spike.

The foreclosure situation in Kendall County is grim as the numbers continue to spike. There were 400 foreclosure postings in March – 75 more postings than 2009. Becky Morganegg the circuit county clerk said, “I know people keep asking ‘are they slowing down?’ I haven’t seen the slow down.”
The debt collector from Castle Bank, Christine Monteiro referred to pileups that can happen in courts once the processing of all the foreclosures start. She said, “If you look at an assembly line where you have five or six widgets that are going through in a month and that’s OK but now we are getting 50 or 60-of course something is going to stop.”

A staggering number of foreclosures are winding through the judicial system in Kendall County. The realtors and bankers of the regions say that the housing market is not going to recover now – more time would be required.

The broker dealing with real estate for Coldwell Banker Honig-bell, Ted Wilkinson said that the people are not buying houses. He chipped, “That American dream has always been to own your own home and right now people still have that dream but they put it on hold.”

Wilkinson explained that the unemployment accompanying the foreclosure crisis has worsened matters. The people do not know how long they would be able to cling on to their jobs – if they have one. This makes them cautious about buying new property or upgrading the old one. He said, “There is a lot of fear out there. The unemployment is the key. That’s what took us here and that’s what’s going to have to bring us out of it.”
He observed that previously also prices of property had fallen. In the 80’s it went down because interest rates jumped to 16%. He said, “Real estate is never level, it’s always going up or down. But this is the most severe I have seen it. I’m hopeful that people will start buying again and so far the beginning of this year is doing better than last year," he said. "But it is not like someone opened up the gates.”

He has noted that simultaneous with the dropping of prices the sale of houses have picked up. Once this sale tendency picks up speed the market will level off. He analyzed, “Most people (in the market) for a starter home will not go out and buy a $400,000 home-its going to take someone who already owes and right now those people are in a position where they can’t sell and buy or are afraid to because of the economy.”