By Catherine Reagor | Arizona Republic
Metro Phoenix isn’t facing a looming foreclosure crisis despite some warnings of one coming due to rising interest rates and lagging home prices.
National foreclosure headlines focus on increases but are often misleading.
The number of people in danger of losing houses to lenders in the Phoenix area is down.
That will disappoint some home shoppers looking for deals.
“Most metro Phoenix homeowners still have plenty of equity in their houses and low mortgage rates,” said Cromford Report senior housing analyst Tina Tamboer.
So if Valley homeowners lose a job or can’t make their mortgage payment for another reason, they can sell and avoid foreclosure.
Also, the Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced it will halt foreclosures on VA loans until May 2024.
In October, 315 homeowners received notices from lenders that they were facing foreclosure for missing payments, according to the Information Market. That’s up from 234 in September but close to August’s pace of 302 foreclosure notices.
And those numbers are historically very low.
Most lenders wait for borrowers to be three months behind on their home loan payments to file a notice of trustee sale. That is the first step in an Arizona foreclosure and is often called a pre-foreclosure because homeowners can still catch up and keep their house.
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