Phoenix area home prices could experience another drop in value because of tens of thousands of properties that could flood the market in 2010.
This shadow inventory, located across metropolitan Phoenix, is threatening the recovery of the real estate market and overall Arizona economy. more…
For the Phoenix area housing economy, 2009 might be remembered as Year of the Investor.
Of the 79,000 home sales that closed in Maricopa County in 2009, a majority were connected to real estate investor activity. All sales were somehow influenced by investor presence. more…
Dave Dziedzic believes there is money to be made keeping struggling families in their homes.
Most people think of real-estate investors as the people who enter the picture after a homeowner has been foreclosed on, and in most cases that’s true. more…
The Valley’s foreclosure wave swept inward in 2009, moving from younger communities at its outer edge toward older, wealthier and more centrally located areas.
The hardest-hit community by far was in west-central Phoenix, where foreclosures in two ZIP codes, 85017 and 85019, accounted for at least 72 percent of all home-resale transactions - about 1,070 sales out of 1,315, according to the latest Valley home-values data from The Information Market. The previous year, foreclosures accounted for about 60 percent of the area’s sales. more…
For decades to come, participants in the Valley’s housing economy are sure to remember 2009 as the Year of the Investor. Few of the roughly 79,000 Maricopa County home sales that closed in 2009 were more than a degree of separation away from investor activity, and even those exceptions were influenced in some way by investors’ presence in the market.
Thousands of individuals and institutions with dollars, deutschemarks, dinars or yen to spend began buying up homes in the Phoenix area after learning of an unprecedented spike in lender-initiated foreclosures that was clearing families out of starter-home subdivisions as quickly as deferred-payment plans and zero-down financing had ushered them in a few years earlier. more…
WASHINGTON - Housing construction fell in February as winter blizzards held down activity in the Northeast and South. The decline highlighted the challenges facing builders as they struggle to emerge from the worst housing slump in decades.
The Commerce Department said Tuesday that construction of new homes and apartments fell 5.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 575,000 units, slightly higher than the 570,000 that economists were expecting. January activity was revised up to a pace of 622,000 units, the strongest showing in 14 months. more…
Short sales are many homeowners best option to avoid foreclosure, which is why these lender-approved deals are at record levels in metropolitan Phoenix.
But sellers considering short sales should know all their options and the credit and tax ramifications from the deals first. That’s why the Arizona Department of Real Estate worked with industry experts across the state to produce the new Short Sale Seller Advisory. more…
More Phoenix-area homeowners are walking away from their mortgage payments, and many more are likely considering it.
These are not people losing homes due to severe financial problems. “Walking away” now also describes people who can make their payments but don’t want to because they owe much more than their home is worth. more…