Foreclosures homes for sale shot up in number by 95 percent in the city of Chandler, a large suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, over the last two quarters of 2009, as unemployment and poverty levels continued to climb up in the area.
According to Dennis Strachota, management services director of Chandler, the rate of residential foreclosure in the city soared by an overwhelming 95 percent in the last quarter last year compared to the previous quarter, the highest foreclosure rate increase the city has ever experienced.
The jobless rate also continued rising last year. In October, it hit 6.6 percent, much higher than the October 2008 jobless rate of 4.3 percent. The poverty rate now across the city has soared to 7.3 percent.
The economic situation in Chandler has deteriorated to a point where city officials needed to declare the whole city an economic recovery zone. With the declaration, the city becomes qualified to issue bonds worth $8 million to raise funds for road and drainage projects, creating jobs and stimulating local economic activities.
Under the economic recovery declaration, the city is also allowed to issue economic development bonds worth $3.2 million to finance job training, educational opportunities, infrastructure projects and the operation of public facilities. The city will also receive federal subsidies to make the bond rates more affordable to Chandler.
The city can also issue facility bonds worth up to $4.8 million to finance business projects which cannot receive public financial assistance from regular public bonds.
In addition to these bond programs, the city will also continue its program of turning foreclosures homes for sale into affordable homes. The city has already spent about one-fourth of the $1.4 million it received from the first funding round of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
The city formed a land trust in partnership with the nonprofit NewTown to rehabilitate vacant homes in the area bounded by Ray and Elliot roads, where the pace of foreclosure has reached 40 percent. Under the land trust program, families pay only the house, with land ownership retained by the trust, to enhance home affordability.
As of the latest count, almost 2,700 homes in Chandler are either in pre foreclosures or in actual foreclosure and more foreclosures homes for sale are expected in the coming months. Lenders that delayed foreclosures during the holidays are now expected to pursue filing cases on delinquent homeowners.
Comments(0)