How the Cook County Land Bank works to streamline Chicago’s foreclosure logjam

Real estate values have mostly rebounded from the Great Recession, but it is a different story in Chicago and Cook County. Home values in Chicago have risen, but still lag behind the national average. A contributing factor to this is the length of time properties are stuck in foreclosure. While the overall number of foreclosures has declined, the average time for a property to clear foreclosure increased to 970 days from 654 days in 2012.

Cook County government established the Cook County Land Bank Authority four years ago as a systemic response to the foreclosure crisis and to address the large inventory of vacant residential, commercial and industrial property in Cook County…Please click here for  Chuck Sudo’s story in Bisnow Chicago.