Foreclosures rise again in the Phoenix area
<p>The number of foreclosures in the Phoenix area jumped back up in January, putting a damper on hopes for a quick 2011 recovery in the hard-hit housing market. A new report from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University reveals details.</p><separator></separator><p>While foreclosures represented about 30 percent of the transactions in the single-family-home resale market in the last few months of 2010, the rate bounced back up to 43 percent in the first month of 2011.</p><separator></separator><p>“The main question for the coming months is whether the January surge in foreclosure activity is a temporary response in unclogging the pipeline after foreclosure moratoriums ended or a continuation of a market being dominated by foreclosures,” says associate professor of Real Estate Jay Butler, who wrote the report.</p><separator></separator><p>More than 3,600 single-family homes were foreclosed in January. That’s way up from less than 2,500 in December.</p><separator></separator><p>Right now, single-family home prices are staying relatively low in the Phoenix area. The median price for home resales (not including new foreclosures) was $125,000 in January, the same as December. This was a big drop from last January’s median of $136,500.</p><separator></separator><p>“For the last year, about 40 percent of the traditional sales were foreclosed homes sold again with a median price markdown of 14 percent from the foreclosed price,” explains Butler.</p><separator></separator><p>In the townhouse/condominium market, the foreclosure rate is also high. Of the 1,320 townhome/condo transactions in January, about 40 percent (520) were foreclosures. The median townhome/condo price was $76,000 in January, slightly up from $75,000 in December, but way down from $95,000 in January of last year.</p><separator></separator><p>Butler’s full report, including statistics, charts and a breakdown by different areas of the Valley, can be viewed at <a href="http://wpcarey.asu.edu/realestate/Phoenix-Resale-Market-Reports.cfm">ht…;. More analysis is also available from <em>Knowledge@W. P. Carey</em>, the business school’s online resource and newsletter, at <a href="http://knowledge.wpcarey.asu.edu">http://knowledge.wpcarey.asu.edu</a>…;