Lower Foreclosure Numbers

Encouraging Foreclosure Numbers?


March saw a couple of records fall. One we’ve already mentioned: the number of homes purchased at auction by third-party buyers. There were 5,003 residential foreclosures in Maricopa County: 3,692 reverted to the beneficiary, and 1,311, or about 26.2%, were sold to third-party cash buyers. The smart money at auction, believing they are looking at a fleeing opportunity, continue to be aggressive with a strong rental market yelling in their ear, “Buy, buy, buy!” Why do auction buyers think time is of the essence? Let me give you a couple of reasons. In March we saw the biggest drop in active notices ever, a nearly 10% drop. Active foreclosure inventory fell from 37,533 to 33,955, a drop of 3,658 properties. Why are the numbers of active pending notices declining? We now have monthly trustee’s deeds nearly on par with new filings. In March we saw 5,692 new notices and 5,226 trustee’s deeds, leaving cancellations to hammer away at the existing inventory. In March, Maricopa County saw 3,582 residential cancellations. Looking a little farther downstream at the REO inventory, even with 3,692 properties returning to the banks, REO inventory declined slightly, from 20,076 in February to 19,861 in March. If we define the distressed property inventory as the number of active notices plus the number of REOs, our numbers are 33,955 plus 19,861, or 53,816, down from February’s 57,609.