Lists for Foreclosed Homes Auction Still Growing in Arizona
Properties scheduled for foreclosed homes auction are still rising in number in Pima County, Arizona, based on reports from the Southwest Fair Housing Council and the Pima County Recorder’s Office.
In 2009, more than 12,000 homeowners in the county were notified that their homes will be offered for sale at a trustee auction. The number marked a 200-percent increase from notices in 2007 and a 36-percent jump from notices in 2008.
The Southwest Fair Housing Council, which runs the Don’t Borrow Trouble program aimed at preventing consumers from predatory lending, said that its foreclosure prevention workload has soared. In 2007, only 15 percent of its work involved foreclosures. Starting last year, the percentage of foreclosure workload surpassed 80 percent.
Richard Rhey, head of the council, said that those suffering the most from foreclosures are those that took out adjustable-rate mortgage loans from 2005 through 2008. People who stretched their financial capabilities and bought larger homes are also among those who have become delinquent.
James Wallace, owner of a construction business, said he has been negotiating with Chase and Bank of America to save his primary residence and second home from going into foreclosed homes auction. He said he did not buy more than he could afford and he did not make any shortcuts in his mortgage applications, but the housing-sector crisis downed his contracting business and he got afflicted with colorectal cancer.
Despite undergoing costly surgeries in 2006, he was able to make his monthly mortgage payments until the middle of last year. He has been calling on banks that received money from taxpayers to help prevent houses from going into foreclosure, especially those that have been faithfully paying their loans to the best of their abilities.
In Pima County, the number of homes put into foreclosure sales in December increased to 1,038, up from 475 units in December 2007 and from 923 units in December 2008.
Marshall Vest, head of the University of Arizona Center of Economic and Business Research, said that the drastic declines in property values that caused a lot of defaults and foreclosures had to happen as a correction to the overinflation of home prices that occurred during the boom.
Vest further added that the entry of previously high-priced houses into foreclosed homes auction also helps improve home affordability levels, helps increase the number of buyers and helps complete the absorption and correction needed to stabilize the market.
