Foreclosures for sale meant great deals for buyers in the Sun cities of Arizona in December last year as prices dropped from their price levels in 2008, based on data from the Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business.
In the Sun City area, the median price for pre-owned single-family homes sold, including bank repossessed homes, decreased to $83,500 in December last year, a drop from $95,000 the previous year.
In Sun City West, the single-family resale median price was $122,000, a decrease from $136,150 in December 2008.
The median price for all types of homes also declined, with the median price in Sun City dropping to $124,000 from the December 2008 median of $132,950 and with the median price in Sun City West dropping to $175,000 from the December 2008 median of $186,250.
Total house sales last December reached 115 homes in Sun City, including government foreclosures and other residential foreclosures. Sun City West posted a sales total of 75 homes. These sales figures marked an increase from the 70 units and 45 units sold off in Sun City and Sun City West, respectively, in December 2008.
Resales of condos and townhouses increased in Sun City West to 20 units from 10 units the prior year while resales of townhouse and condo units in Sun City stayed flat at 35 units.
According to the ASU research, the major cause for the record number of foreclosures for sale in Arizona in 2009 was job loss, just like in other states.
In Maricopa County, nearly 41,000 units of single family houses went into foreclosure in 2009, higher than the 34,960 units posted in 2008. Condo foreclosures reached a record number, with more than 5,000 condo units entering foreclosure.
Jay Butler, an ASU real estate professor who discusses foreclosures in his periodic real estate reports, said that over 35 percent of home resales in the county in 2009 were foreclosure sales.
In December last year, over 4,000 Valley houses entered foreclosure, up from about 3,000 in the previous month. Foreclosure sales accounted for 67 percent of all Valley home sales in December.
Foreclosures also comprised big portions of West Valley home sales in December. El Mirage had 54 percent of its home sales comprising foreclosures while Surprise posted a 42-percent foreclosure sale percentage.
According to ASU professor Butler, foreclosures for sale are expected to continue rising this year, as shown in the foreclosure trend in the last months of 2009.
Comments(0)