New numbers regarding the Phoenix foreclosure market

This data came from RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for January 2011. RealtyTrac is a firm that tracks warning signs of foreclosures such as notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions, and home repossessions. The full press release can be found here.

They reported that the number of homes receiving an initial default notice fell 1 percent last month from December 2010 and dropped 27 percent from January of last year. That being said, foreclosure filings - which is defined as including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - has slightly different numbers. The foreclosure filings saw a 1 percent increase from the previous month but a 17 percent decrease from January 2010.

A statement made by James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, in their official press release read that "We've now seen three straight months with fewer than 300,000 properties receiving foreclosure filings, following 20 straight months where the total exceeded 300,000." Essentially, all of these numbers are welcome news but they also may be a bit misleading. It is believed that foreclosure filings are decreasing due to the backlog of filings at banks - not that more people are avoiding foreclosures altogether.

What is happening with the Phoenix foreclosure market?

It's not great news. At a state level, Arizona posted the second-highest foreclosure rate (after Nevada and before California) in the nation. Our foreclosure activity increased 16 percent from December 2010 but - the good news is - foreclosures are down 25 percent year-over-year (from January 2010).

As a metro, the amount of Phoenix foreclosure filings put us as the eigth highest area in the nation.

So this new report offers mixed news: foreclosure filings are down but it looks like they are going to continue . . . and the Phoenix foreclosure market is down significantly but we're still leading the nation.

Overall, I think this report doesn't offer anything significantly different than what we already knew: it's going to take some time for the foreclosure filing to cycle through the market . . . and Phoenix remains a really good buy with many "deals" to be had.

If you are considering buying a Phoenix foreclosure, contact me. I have a lot of experience with bank-owned properties and am here to help.