Phoenix Foreclosure Market – June 2011
The Information Market released their greater Maricopa County foreclosure statistics for May 2011. Although April’s numbers were probably more newsworthy with a greater number of foreclosures completed than new notices issued, May’s numbers provide newsworthy occurrences also. It’s time to review the current Phoenix foreclosure market and identify some significant changes that have occurred since the first of the year.
Foreclosure numbers as of 5/31/2011
- Total active residential notices are 27,396; the lowest number since 11/08. The number has dropped 28% since the first of the year, which is more than 10,000 fewer residential properties in foreclosure.
- The number of new notices in May was basically the same as the number of completed foreclosures. This is only the 2nd time that new monthly notices were not greater than monthly completions in the past 10 years;
- There were 4,000+ residential foreclosures cancelled last month; second highest all time.
- With only 1,900 short sales closed (Maricopa County) for May, there are other reasons that trustee sales are being canceled.
- New notices for May were basically the same as April and April had the fewest since 11/07.
- The number of residential properties currently owned by banks in Maricopa County is 18,451; the lowest since July of last year.
Bank Owned Inventory = 18,451
- 3,901 active listings in ARMLS;
- 325 listings in AWC status;
- 4,986 properties in pending status.
This accounts for 9,212 of the 18,451, or 50% of all bank owned properties. Where’s the other 50%? Good question. I imagine there are a number of issues such as previous owner evictions, tenants with valid leases, title issues, maintenance/property condition issues, or a few others that fall into the “miscellaneous legal issues” category. With basically a 1 month supply of active REO listings in the county (3,901 active / 3,765 sold in May), bringing on the other 50% of bank owned inventory will not “flood the market.” In fact, adding 9,000 active listings would add an additional 1 month supply to our current 2.4 month supply for the entire market.
As various sources reported last month, these developments are significant steps necessary for our market to improve. Sure these might be small steps and we’re not out of the woods yet, but I thought you might be interested in a year-to-date review as we head into our summer selling season.