Thursday, February 11, 2010
Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks
Close to half of the existing home sales in the Phoenix metro area last month were foreclosed properties exhibiting continued struggles in the housing market, according to an Arizona University report released Thursday.
The report also said that two out of three home sales in the Valley in January were either foreclosures or re-sales of foreclosed homes.
“Even in response to hiatus and mortgage modification programs, foreclosure activity did not slow,” said Arizona State University economist Jay Butler. “It takes some time to finish recording transactions, though, so some slowing might still be evident in the next few months.”
ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business reported Thursday there were 3,500 single-family foreclosures in January with a total of 7,725 total home sales. There were 495 condo foreclosures during January with 1,150 total condo sales last month.
There were 1,085 foreclosures of single-family homes in Phoenix last month; 140 in Scottsdale and 335 in Mesa.
Median single-family home prices in the Phoenix area dropped from $140,000 in December to $136,500 in January. The median price was $136,000 in January 2008.
