30000 Phoenix area Homes Foreclosed On, To Date, In 2008
As long as foreclosures continue to climb, home prices will fall.
More than 30,000 Valley homes have been foreclosed on so far this year. That compares to fewer than 1,500 foreclosures in 2006. Now, almost all of the homes are going back to the lenders, which are reselling them for bargain prices.
"It's clear foreclosures are putting a lot of pressure on home prices," said Tom Ruff, a real-estate analyst with the Information Market, which compiled housing-value data for The Republic.
The impact on prices is apparent. The Valley's overall median resale price without factoring in foreclosures is $215,000. The overall median resale price of a foreclosed home is $149,000. That foreclosure median pulls down the overall median resale price to $180,000. At the height of the housing boom in 2006, the median was $267,000.
Ruff said foreclosures could peak by the end of the year.
But that doesn't mean prices will have hit bottom because of the backlog of foreclosures that lenders still need to liquidate.
Foreclosure properties are dominating the Valley's housing market. In a few Valley neighborhoods, there are more foreclosure resales than regular resales.
Lower home prices are drawing more buyers, but they may not all be the types of buyers neighbors want.
by Catherine Reagor - Oct. 26, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic