RealtyTrac: Arizona's Housing Crisis May Be Over

By Dennis Lambert
Published: Thursday, February 13, 2014 - 2:16pm
Updated: Thursday, February 13, 2014 - 3:13pm
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Arizona’s housing crisis is over, according to the latest numbers released Thursday morning by the housing data company RealtyTrac. Vice President Daren Blomquist said foreclosures dropped sharply in January, with a 24 percent decrease from December. They were 58 percent below January of last year.

“The 2,300 properties with foreclosure filings. That’s the lowest level we’ve seen since July of 2006 and so we’re really back to, we’ve talked about being close to back to normal, but I would say with these January numbers we are, you know I can say the Arizona numbers are back to normal," said Blomquist.

Blomquist said that is in stark contrast to the situation in neighboring Nevada, where foreclosure auctions in January were at a 23 month high, and he said that state’s problems were the result of legislative activity, designed to stem the tide of the foreclosure crisis.

“The unintended consequence of that is it prolongs the pain of the foreclosure crisis because there’s still a group of homeowners who aren’t able to avoid foreclosure even if they’re given more time," Blomquist said.    

He said the legislative changes made the foreclosure picture look better than it was in Nevada but ultimately prolonged the housing crisis there.

Blomquist said the big decrease in foreclosure activity was surprising, since traditionally the number of foreclosures goes up from December to January, but he said it was in context with a market that has gotten out of the foreclosure crisis faster than many others.