ARIZONA FORECLOSURE PLIGHT CONTINUES

posted by Michael Chihak

By DIANA SOKOLOVA Arizona Week Intern

Arizona’s housing market is struggling to improve after home values collapsed in the last three years. The state is second after Nevada in foreclosure rate. A total of 93,413 foreclosed homes were on the market as of today, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate data provider.

Arizona is among six states – Nevada, California, Florida, Illinois and Michigan are the others – accounting for well more than half the nation’s total foreclosure activity with nearly 1.6 million properties receiving a foreclosure filing in 2010, according to the United States Foreclosure Filing report.

The foreclosure rate in Arizona jumped 22 percent from April 2010 to this April.

RealtyTrac reported that one in every 205 homes in Arizona received a foreclosure filing this April. There were 13,419 new foreclosure properties on the market for the first quarter of the year, the organization reported.

Pinal County had the worst rate of foreclosures in April. 1,034 homes or one in 143. Maricopa County had 9,324 home foreclosures, one in 170. Pima County had 1,686 properties, one in 254, according to RealtyTrac’s report.

On average, homes in Arizona sell for $129,032, RealtyTrac reported.

April 2011 was the second month in a row for Phoenix-area foreclosure rates to drop, an Arizona State University professor of real estate and finance reported. Associate Professor Jay Butler said the drop is not significant enough to improve the overall situation of high the foreclosure rate in the market.

The Arizona Republic in a May 11 story reported that “In April, the Phoenix area had 3,745 foreclosures. That’s down from 4,145 in March but more than the 3,490 foreclosures in April 2010.”