PHOENIX - A new report shows foreclosure activity in Arizona jumped nearly 18 percent in October compared with the previous month.
Foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac says nearly 4,200 homeowners lost their homes last month, and another 6,400 were served with notices of default. Such notices are the first formal step lenders take before repossessing a home.
RealtyTrac's Daren Blomquist said the numbers reflect an ongoing seesaw between up and down months as banks try to work through a raft of delinquencies but keep being sidelined by missteps.
But the overall trend is positive. Arizona has now seen 12 consecutive months when foreclosures fell compared with the same month a year ago.
Arizona had the third-highest foreclosure rate of any state last month. One in every 259 housing units has a foreclosure filing.
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Foreclosure activity in Arizona jumped nearly 18 percent in October compared with the previous month.
Nearly 4,200 homeowners in the state lost their homes last month, and another 6,400 were served with notices of default, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac.
Nationally, 10 percent more homes received an initial default notice last month than in September.
Stumbles like October's show the market still is unhealthy.
"When we see an increase like this, it shows us that we're not on this consistent trend downward," Blomquist said. "There's a lot of distress still in the market, and the market is going to have to absorb those distressed properties at some point."
Banks appear to be moving to allow more homeowners to go through the short-sale process rather than repossessing homes outright, Blomquist said.
Those sales allow homeowners to avoid a full-out foreclosure by selling their homes for less than what's owed on the mortgage, with the bank absorbing the loss.
LOCAL ANGLE
Pima County logged a month-over-month increase in foreclosure notices from September to October, though it was not as stark as what was seen statewide.
In October, there were 686 of the notices served to Pima County homeowners, a 3.6 percent increase over the 662 served in September, according to RealtyTrac's data.
The number of filings was still 36 percent lower than last October, when homeowners were served with 1,064 of the notices.
More local homeowners - 584 in October - lost their homes to foreclosure, RealtyTrac's numbers show. That compares with 490 homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure in September.
Arizona Daily Star