Foreclosure rate stays high, possible return to negative trend
More bad news for the Phoenix-area housing market. A new report from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University shows the possible return to a negative trend.
In the final months of 2010, foreclosures had gone down to represent only 30 percent of the transactions in the single-family home resale market. However, in January, that rate shot up to 43 percent, and the new report reveals it was about 43 percent again in February.
鈥淲e鈥檝e all been watching to see if the foreclosure rate in late 2010 would carry over into this year, but unfortunately, the good news hasn鈥檛 come yet,鈥 says associate professor of Real Estate Jay Butler, who wrote the report. 鈥淛anuary 2011 showed a reemergence of troubled times, which continued through February.鈥
Butler explains the year 2010 ended with an unusual set of circumstances, including foreclosure moratoriums, legal challenges to the foreclosure process, and weak economic and job recovery.
鈥淭he fundamental uncertainty now is whether the initial months of 2011 represent just a short-term response as the pipeline unclogs after the foreclosure moratoriums or if it鈥檚 a continuation of a market being dominated by foreclosures,鈥 says Butler.
Out of more than 8,500 single-family home resale transactions in February, more than 3,600 were foreclosures. In addition, when you look at the rest of the transactions, 40-percent of those were the resales of previously foreclosed-on properties.
鈥淭hus, foreclosure-related activity represented a total of 66 percent of the market transactions in February,鈥 explains Butler.
The median price for single-family homes resold (not newly foreclosed) in the Phoenix area in February was $127,500. That鈥檚 up from $125,000 in January, but way down from last February鈥檚 $140,000.
In the townhouse/condominium market, 580 foreclosures happened in February. The median price of a townhome/condo resold (not newly foreclosed) in February was $75,000. That鈥檚 way down from $95,000 last February.
Butler鈥檚 full report, including statistics, charts and a breakdown by different areas of the Valley, can be viewed at . More analysis is also available from Knowledge@W. P. Carey, the business school鈥檚 online resource and newsletter, at .
More information: Butler鈥檚 full report, including statistics, charts and a breakdown by different areas of the Valley, can be viewed at
Provided by Arizona State University