Arizona MLS Statistics Paint Grim Picture if You Have to Sell to Avoid Foreclosure

It's been a strong buyer's market in the greater Phoenix market for a while now, and the statistics from Arizona Regional MLS (link is here: http://www.armls.com/stats.html) is showing the slowdown continuing through the latest stats, which are through April 2007.

Some of the highlights (or lowlights, actually) from MLS data are:

• April 2007 homes sold are 5,535 which is the lowest for April since 2001. This stat is trending over the last 8 or 9 months at 2002 levels.


• Number of active residential resale listings as of today are 51,789 which is over a 9 month supply of resale homes clogging the market.


• There are roughly 15,000 new listings PER MONTH hitting the market in ARMLS (mostly Maricopa County).


• Median new listing price is down to the lowest levels of the year, as sellers realize they must cut their asking prices if they want to move the house.


• Average Days on Market for sold properties in May 2007 was 110 days.

What does all this mean? For folks facing a foreclosure soon (Arizona is a 90 day state), it is still very difficult to sell their house before the auction takes place, unless they have enough room to slash their price for a quick sale, but still sell the house for enough to pay off all the loans, real estate commissions, closing costs, title fees, etc. And many of our clients find that what they really owe the banks is really much more than they think. It's not just the principal balance as of the last time they made a payment that they owe, but the banks will want all the accrued unpaid interest, penalties, late fees, attorneys' fees, trustee fees, appraisal fees, etc. The list seems endless. This means that it will be very difficult for a family facing foreclosure to sell their house on the open market in time to sell it and CLOSE the sale before the house is sold out from under them at auction. If that happens, they will be ordered out of the house and a foreclosure will be on their credit for at least 7 years.

If a house takes 110 days to sell and another 45 days to close, most families will have had their house sold at auction long before then by the Trustee (it's called a Trustee's Sale). An "I Buy Houses" investor can close more quickly, sometimes as an all-cash sale, but they will more than likely want a very big discount, usually at least 20% off or more. Many families find themselves just letting the house go back to the bank at auction, with the foreclosure on their credit report to follow them around for years.

Our company helps families in this situation explore their options and make the best informed intelligent decision that's right for them, even when it seems like nothing at all will work, but it's critical that we get started on the solution as early as possible in the process. If you would like to talk to us about working together to resolve the situation, please call our 24-hour free educational message and leave a message or follow the prompts to be direct connected to us. We will send you a free Consumer Guide to the Foreclosure Process by return very discreet mail. You can also send me an email by clicking this link: Email Me!. We really can help, and we really DO care. To hear a recorded message on why you definitely DO want to stop the foreclosure, and how we can work together to accomplish that, just call 1-800-433-8563 ext. 86186 right away!