Foreclosure Rates High in Chicago, Bay Areas

Foreclosure rates remain high in the San Francisco Bay area and are rising in the Chicago metropolitan area, according to an online seller of foreclosed property.Foreclosures.com says the pace of foreclosures in Chicago "continues at near epidemic levels." In any given week, 1,300 to 1,500 foreclosure cases are pending in the six-county Chicagoland area. Alexis McGee, president of Foreclosures.com, said a troubling trend in Chicago is a steady increase in subprime loans going into foreclosure, in both the inner city and the suburbs. "The Chicago area has been a prime hunting ground for predatory lenders for several years, and now we're seeing the fallout," she said. The Fair Oaks, Calif.-based company also says job losses and protracted unemployment in some Northern California markets portend additional foreclosures in that region in the second half of this year.