While the number of homes in the six-county region entering the process fell by almost 38 percent from 2013's first half, to just under 14,000 cases, foreclosure auctions decreased by only 17 percent to 13,602 auctions, according to a report scheduled to be released Thursday by Woodstock Institute, a Chicago-based research and public policy organization.
"You had this huge influx of filings that was the pig in the snake," said Spencer Cowan, a vice president at the group. "The court got backlogged. It's taking time to work through the system.'