Archive for the 'Arizona Articles' Category

There are a handful of vacant foreclosed properties in Tucson, Arizona and most residents are worried that these empty premises will lead to higher crime rates and will impact local businesses. Along with the numerous Tucson house auctions for sale, there are also apartment buildings and commercial properties left vacant in the area.

One property that was supposed to have been sold at one of the foreclosure auctions in Arizona is now causing problems for the residents of Fort Lowell. The Vista Sierra apartment building owned by the Metropolitan Housing Corp. is currently empty and is said to be a favorite target of vandals.

As the apartment complex has not been disposed along with other buildings and house auctions for sale, residents are complaining that the empty building is causing good neighbors to stay away from the area and is also discouraging businesses to come into the neighborhood.

The building was purchased by Metropolitan from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development as one of the thousands of Tucson house auctions for sale. According to local HUD officials, the department is currently working on securing and boarding up the premises and cleaning the building until the HUD can come up with a decision on how to dispose of it.

Some local businesses have stated that a big number of foreclosed buildings and properties under fixer uppers listings have been left empty in the city while authorities are looking for a way to dispose of these structures. Business owners around the area have asserted that the situation is bad for their business reputations and operations and creates an unsafe neighborhood for families.

With the Vista apartment building, authorities have stated that the process of deciding what will become of it might take until the end of the year. They added that HUD has to first determine repair costs and whether it would be more beneficial to demolish the building.

For now, residents and local businesses have to tolerate the apartment complex and hope that something would be done soon. A number of residents did express optimism, stating that in almost all foreclosure cases, Tucson house auctions for sale are eventually occupied, cleaned and restored by the new owners.

Plenty of hot home deals are being offered in one of several Phoenix foreclosure auctions to be held by a private auction firm in Phoenix. This July, about 100 homes priced from around $18,000 to $450,000 will be sold off in the city by this auction firm. All the properties, priced at discounts of 15 to 20 percent, come with insurable titles with no liens or back taxes.

There are still a lot of auction foreclosures in Phoenix, as foreclosure activity had a resurgence in June in the metro area. Strategic defaults have been rising in the area as more mortgages become underwater and as the federal mortgage modification program fails to help troubled borrowers.

More than 3,800 Phoenix homes entered foreclosure in June, up by about 19 percent from around 3,200 distressed homes in May, although down by about five percent from over 4,000 filings in June last year. Around 40 percent of all house resales in June were homes that went through public Phoenix foreclosure auctions. Analysts in the area said that foreclosures could continue to increase as late payments and defaults are surging again.

The pace of public foreclosure auctions in Arizona slowed down by double-digits in June, but the number of homes that entered bank listings was still relatively high. A total of 5,894 homes were repossessed by lenders, accounting for 40.9 percent of the 14,424 homes that were hit with filings in June. Filings in Arizona dropped by 10.4 percent from May and by 14.3 percent from June 2009, but Arizona still ranked third in charts of foreclosure rates. The state ranked second in charts of foreclosure rates during the six-month period ended June.

In the second quarter, Arizona ranked second despite posting more than 18 percent of decline in filings from the first quarter and a four-percent decrease from the second quarter of 2009. A total of 45,613 homes received foreclosure filings and 37.9 percent of these or 17,293 homes entered bank listings. A substantial percentage of these were homes that were repossessed through public Phoenix foreclosure auctions.

Negative equity and unemployment are driving the surge in Tucson home auctions.

In May, 622 homes in Tucson and in other parts of Pima County were repossessed through public auction and another 903 homes are set to get sold off through foreclosure auction if they are not rescued by their owners.

House auctions for sale will continue to surge in Tucson if the 74,317 underwater homeowners in the area as of the first quarter of this year are not helped by loan modification programs. The more than 74,000 underwater borrowers accounted for 36.4 percent of all mortgaged homes in the area, and the additional 10,648 homeowners nearing negative equity comprised 5.2 percent of the total.

In metro Phoenix, a staggering 550,000 homes or 58 percent of all mortgaged housing units have negative equity, the highest number of underwater mortgages for a metro area in the entire nation.

In April, the average sales price for units that went through Tucson home auctions was $134,967, lower by 35.9 percent than the $210,619 average price for all types of existing homes sold in April and lower by 38.5 percent than $219,487 average price for new homes sold during the month.

The number of units repossessed by lenders through home auctions in Arizona dropped in April, but surged again in May. A total of 5,452 homes became REO in April, down by 20.6 percent from 6,869 in March and lower by 10.8 percent than the 6,112 units repossessed in May.

To help the city recover from its economic troubles, the Charter Change Coalition has asked city officials to consider submitting city charter changes in the November ballot this year to empower the Tucson mayor and other city officials.

The recommendations are designed to make changes in the 1929 city charter that has been limiting the powers of city officials to address city problems, including implementing remedies that could help slow down Tucson home auctions.

Search foreclosure listings auctions in Arizona cities:

• Mesa foreclosure listings auctions
• Gilbert foreclosure listings auctions
• Scottsdale foreclosure listings auctions
• Phoenix foreclosure listings auctions
• Glendale foreclosure listings auctions

A substantial rise in the number of repossessed homes in Tucson is expected as thousands of option adjustable-rate mortgages will reset to higher rates next year and in the following years.

Trustee’s sale auctions are becoming popular among investors and homebuyers who want to find bargain properties on Arizona’s repo homes listings. Since last year, attendance at trustee’s auctions increased five times.