Oct. 8, 2008 12:00 AM
Foreclosures and pre-foreclosures were up across metropolitan Phoenix in September. It's the expected bad news in the midst of the financial- and housing-market meltdowns.
But home sales were up across the Valley last month, an unexpected piece of good news.
According to Realtor Mike Orr's analysis of Arizona Multiple Listing Service data, 6,136 homes were sold in September, the highest monthly level since August 2006.
Orr said the higher sales volume is due to more homes being resold after lenders foreclose on them and an expected rush by some first-timers to buy before down-payment-assistance programs go away.
There are more foreclosure homes for buyers to choose from. In September, foreclosures, or trustee sales, in Maricopa County hit a new high of 4,378, according to the Information Market. That's a 10 percent increase in one month.
Pre-foreclosures, or notices of trustee sales, also hit a new high. Last month, lenders moved to foreclose on 7,447 Valley homes.
Tom Ruff, a real-estate analyst with Information Market, said currently about two out of every three pre-foreclosures end up in foreclosure. More than 95 percent of all foreclosures go back to the lender.
Valley homes foreclosed on and resold by banks accounted for as much as 50 percent of all resales in September.
Buyers are finding bargains in the foreclosure-resale market, which continues to pull down the area's overall median home price. Information Market tracked a median price of $175,000 for the Valley's resale market in September. The median price for foreclosure resales was about $150,000.
Some real-estate analysts say the housing market was the first economic sector to fall and will be the first to recover. It's nothing new in Arizona for real estate to lead the economy into a recession - and to lead it out.
Orr said the upswing in home sales continued during the first week of October.
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