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Tag Archive: Maricopa County

Phoenix Foreclosure Market – June 2011

by on Jun 3, 2011 | Buying, Careers and Training, Real Estate Statistics, Selling

The Information Market released their greater Maricopa County foreclosure statistics for May 2011. Although April’s numbers were probably more newsworthy with a greater number of foreclosures completed than new notices issued, May’s numbers provide newsworthy occurrences also. It’s time to review the current Phoenix foreclosure market and identify some significant changes that have occurred since the first of the year.

Foreclosure numbers as of 5/31/2011

  • Total active residential notices are 27,396; the lowest number since 11/08. The number has dropped 28% since the first of the year, which is more than 10,000 fewer residential properties in foreclosure.
  • The number of new notices in May was basically the same as the number of completed foreclosures. This is only the 2nd time that new monthly notices were not greater than monthly completions in the past 10 years;
  • There were 4,000+ residential foreclosures cancelled last month; second highest all time.
  • With only 1,900 short sales closed (Maricopa County) for May, there are other reasons that trustee sales are being canceled.
  • New notices for May were basically the same as April and April had the fewest since 11/07.
  • The number of residential properties currently owned by banks in Maricopa County is 18,451; the lowest since July of last year.

Bank Owned Inventory = 18,451

  • 3,901 active listings in ARMLS;
  • 325 listings in AWC status;
  • 4,986 properties in pending status.

This accounts for 9,212 of the 18,451, or 50% of all bank owned properties. Where’s the other 50%? Good question. I imagine there are a number of issues such as previous owner evictions, tenants with valid leases, title issues, maintenance/property condition issues, or a few others that fall into the “miscellaneous legal issues” category. With basically a 1 month supply of active REO listings in the county (3,901 active / 3,765 sold in May), bringing on the other 50% of bank owned inventory will not “flood the market.” In fact, adding 9,000 active listings would add an additional 1 month supply to our current 2.4 month supply for the entire market.

As various sources reported last month, these developments are significant steps necessary for our market to improve. Sure these might be small steps and we’re not out of the woods yet, but I thought you might be interested in a year-to-date review as we head into our summer selling season.

Foreclosures in Maricopa County: November 2010

by on Dec 3, 2010 | Buying, Careers and Training, Real Estate Statistics, Selling

Wow-I bet the press will have a field day reporting on November’s Maricopa County Foreclosure numbers.  Don’t get too excited if the ‘Foreclosures Plummet’ headlines come.  I think the Headlines should say something like ‘Foreclosure Moratoriums Impact the Market’.

Here are the numbers-

Notices for the November 5891-down 17% (1187) fewest new Notices since 3/08;

Foreclosures Completed:  2694-down 37% (1562) lowest since 3/08;

Canceled Notices:  3339-down 4%;

Total Active Notices:  41,771-which is up 192 from 10/10

Number of Bank Owned Properties:  19,966-down 4% or 855 for the month.

What’s this mean for December?  Most moratoriums have been lifted, and foreclosures are being completed again, although Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced they will halt foreclosure evictions between Dec. 20 and Jan. 3.   And Bank of America has said it will pause its foreclosure sales and evictions from “late December through New Years Day,” on loans held in its portfolio or loans held by investors who will allow such a moratorium.

So the foreclosure market won’t return to a full calendar month until January.  These actions in November and December should make for a ‘surge’ in foreclosure numbers for the 1st Quarter of 2011.

Phoenix’s Bank Owned Home Numbers

by on Apr 6, 2010 | Buying, Real Estate Statistics, Selling

Tom Ruff of the Information Market posted March’s foreclosure numbers recently, which caught my eye regarding the REO market in Maricopa County.

Let me explain. March had 8045 Notices posted which was a 6% increase over February. While that may sound like bad news remember March had 3 more ‘business’ days and the 2010 numbers were 25% below March 2009.

The number of ‘Canceled’ Foreclosures was 3747-the highest month ever. More Short Sales and Loan Mods? (Probably) The Canceled numbers were 7% higher than 2/10 and 15% higher than 3/9. Again starting to sound like good news.

The banks completed 5556 Trustee sales, also the highest month on record. This may be attributed to the longer month and/or the end of a quarter. With the completed sales and the canceled sales, the month showed a 1314 drop in “Bank Owned” properties-the current Shadow Inventory. In fact the number of Bank Owned dropped 2634 for the quarter, the first drop for a quarter since Q1 2006. Wow some might be starting to think the ship is turning.

I did some personal study of the 16,342 current ‘Bank Owned’ properties. I found 4970 active in ARMLS; 384 AWC; 4524 Pending; and 203 Closed so far in April. That’s approximately 10,000 of the 16,000. Are the Bank Owned-but not on the market numbers growing? It appears so-Is that bad? Probably not. Remember the Fannie Mae program of ‘rent backs’ after foreclosure? Wouldn’t that lead to more ‘Bank Owned’ but not on the market?

Again thanks to Tom for his counting, reporting and explaining. It certainly helps to make some sense of what’s happening in today’s greater Metropolitan Phoenix market.

Phoenix Area Real Estate Market by Jim Sexton

by on Dec 1, 2008 | Real Estate Statistics


John Hall & Associates - Phoenix Real Estate BrokerageNovember 2008-What a month!!! Yes the elections are over and now what? Congress goes back into session to address the economy and determine how many more billions it takes to correct the economy. Is that good news or bad news?

Although housing is center stage, other industries are lining up for help such as the Automakers and more Financial Institutions (or the same Financial Institutions wanting more). President-elect Obama and his new appointees/advisers have their hands full.

But let’s stick to what’s happening in our own backyard in the industry we understand and can report on. Yes Phoenix, there is a real estate market, contrary to the Arizona Republic’s reporting and their focus on foreclosures for the next 2 weeks. Is that an “end of the year” pep talk? Maybe the last few topics will be on the opportunities that exist today in our market. Hopefully their readers don’t get turned off by the first few doomsday headlines and miss reading the good news articles that are yet to come.

Let’s look at some early numbers for November as reported by ARMLS:

4200+ sales with an average sales price of $210,000;
1896 were REO’s and their average was $155,000 or 39% lower than the Non-bank owned 2370 @$254,000 average sales price.

Looking at Maricopa County only:
3690 sales $221,000 average;
1640 REO-$162,000 average;
2050 non-REO $269,000.

These numbers are encouraging for another reason. November was a “short” month. Yes I know, February is the shortest month, but count the number of business days this November. With most banks and county facilities closed on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the last business day was Wednesday the 26th. So, November was the shortest month of the year. But, it was not a “Going out of Business” month. In fact check the numbers and compare them to 2007. 11/08 number of sales was 28% higher than 11/07. In fact 2008 total number of sales will exceed all of 2007′s sometime this week and should end the year 3-4,000 above 2007. I haven’t seen that reported yet.

Plus 2008 heading into 2009 will prove to be the most affordable market in Phoenix for at least the last 4 years when you factor in not just prices but interest rates.

I’ll post later in my series a comparison of prices over the last 5 years. As we begin the final month of the year, the Greater Phoenix marketplace hasn’t seen the average price and median price figures this low since 2004. And the trend over the last 6 months is $30,000 less than the first half of the year.

So you can focus on the foreclosure market and the hardships it has caused, or search for the opportunities that are present in today’s marketplace. Buyers who were priced out of the market in 2005-6 or voluntarily stayed on the sidelines for the past 3-5 years are poised to enter/reenter the market and profit from 2008′s price adjustments. Now more than ever you should be communicating with your clients by identifying the trends and sharing the opportunities in today’s market.