Borrowed time: Number of area foreclosures soars

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http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=413966

SPRINGFIELD -- Larry Teague knows how to borrow trouble.

The postal worker borrowed $1.1 million in subprime loans to buy nine rental properties in the Kankakee area. As his monthly payments soared, Teague watched each house go into foreclosure and himself into bankruptcy.

He now worries about losing his own residence.

"Someone should have sat me down and explained all of this to me. I really didn't understand what I was signing. They said it was a flexible-rate mortgage and that my rates could go up or down. But they don't tell that in reality they just go up," he said. "They said rates can go up no more than 5 percent. They didn't tell me that it was 5 percent at a time and they could keep raising the rate by 5 percent over and over."

Teague's experience is hardly unique. In 2007, the number of home foreclosures rose 25 percent across Illinois, according to recently released data provided by California-based Realtytrac. The company's database also shows that foreclosures increased in Kankakee County by 15 percent.

In other words, the number of foreclosed homes in Kankakee County jumped from 633 in 2006 to 729 last year. The total number of homes foreclosed upon in 2005 in the county was 713.