There were 4,304 Arizona foreclosure listings in May and 4,868 in June; a rise of 13.1%. About 4 million seriously delinquent borrowers exist, many of whom would already be in foreclosure except for processing delays.

The number of U.S. homes seized by banks fell in May as processing delays continued to impede foreclosures. Many lenders are in no hurry to add repossessed houses to their books as it takes an average of three years in California to clear a house from the pipeline of foreclosure listings.

California	May Listings	June Listings	Percent Rise
Sacramento	463		562		21.3
Bakersfield	279		346		24.0
Fresno		228		291		27.6
Stockton	201		272		35.3
Los Angeles	202		249		23.2

Arizona		May Listings	June Listings	Percent Rise
Phoenix		1019		1207		18.4
Tucson		491		557		13.4
Mesa		354		389		13.4
Glendale	237		276		16.4
Scottsdale	162		193		19.1

Even though the foreclosure system is bogged down by the sheer volume of cases, borrowers are fighting to keep their houses. The U.S. Department of Treasury is helping some people avoid foreclosures. The Treasury Department gave states hit hardest by foreclosures a total of $36-millon to help residents pay their mortgages and stay in their homes.

Arizona, one of the states to receive money for the Save Our Home Program, is accepting applicants. The ADOH has funding to help about 100 consumers per month and hopes to reach around 14,000 Arizona households through the course of the program.

On the Arizona Department of Housing (ADOH) website, people who are unemployed and believe their home may enter foreclosure will find a list of requirements and a survey to determine if they’re eligible for help to pay the mortgage. It takes about 15-to-20 minutes to apply and requires a lot of the same information you would need when applying for a loan.

When banks foreclose on homeowners, it ends up costing local city governments millions of dollars each year. Hidden costs associated with foreclosures include declining property tax revenue as homes remain empty or values drop, affecting the home values of the neighborhoods which can also see values drop along with tax revenues.

News Source: ForeclosureListings.com :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

This cycle of surges of many available discounted homes in foreclosure and the purchasing of them continues similar to the stop-and-go of traffic at the change of lights from red to green and back.

ForeclosureListings reports that Phoenix, Arizona, is the top city in foreclosure rates. But since March of 2011, the number of foreclosure listings is falling in a huge proportion, reflecting the surges of foreclosed properties on the market after months of processing the paperwork and verifying information:
March: 1.168 listings
April: 1.081 (-7.45%)
May: 980 (-9.34%).

Miami, one of the largest cities in Florida, has also registered a fall of listings for this time period:
March: 600 listings
April: 516 (-14%)
May: 404 (-21.7%).

Orlando and Fort Lauderdale also have falling numbers since March, giving the impression that Florida is leaving the crisis. But the foreclosure slowdown is largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures and not the result of a housing recovery. The foreclosure slowdown is being received apathetically; banks continue to stall home repossessions, and several of Florida’s major foreclosure processing law firms left the business.

Atlanta, the capital city of Georgia, was only in the 6th position in the top10 of foreclosure listings in March. The following months were only of rising numbers:
March: 387 listings
April: 499 (+28.9%)
May: 635 (+27.2%).

Another example of a rising foreclosure situation is Aurora, one of the top cities in Colorado. Aurora is a place with over twice as many foreclosure listings as Atlanta, Georgia:
March: 1092 listings
April: 1152 (+5.49%)
May: 1365 (+18.8%).

Tucson, another big city in Arizona, is also showing similar numbers, contrary to Phoenix:
March: 424 listings
April: 437 (+3.06%)
May: 488 (+11.6%).

Foreclosures account for around 40 percent of total home sales in Tucson now. Tucson was one of the cities hit hard and fast at the beginning of the housing meltdown, and will likely be one of the first to bottom out and rebound. A buyer can pay $325 per month for a two-bedroom home if they can get approved for financing, for example, due to the depressed prices that have leveled the number of homes that have already been processed. This indicates a swing in the trend from foreclosures to purchases.

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The most expensive house to be lost to foreclosure in the past three years in Jacksonville, Florida, for example, sold for $1.5 million Wednesday – $1.4 million below its county property appraised market value. The nine bedroom, 11 bathroom, 10,000-square-foot, bank-owned Queen’s Harbour mansion, built in 2005, has its market value at $2.95 million set by the property appraiser’s office.

With the sixth-most-expensive ZIP Code in the country, Beverly Hills revealed a 700 percent increase in foreclosures of homes valued at $2 million and higher over the last three years.

Home prices are down almost 32 percent from their 2006 peak nationwide, and many economists expect them to drop at least 5 percent more in 2011; some expect even steeper declines. Millions more homes still face foreclosure as the sputtering economy, uncertain- and under-employment, and government spending and attempts to relieve the situation struggle to overcome the inertia.

With tight lending standards, and almost one-quarter of homeowners with mortgages underwater, it will be a long, difficult road for them to move into better homes because they owe so much more than their current house is worth.

Of the over 70 million Americans who were born between 1945 and 1960, one-third (or approximately 212,000 people) have zero retirement savings. The only money they have is their equity in a house, so they must sell when they enter retirement age, which some have begun doing. This adds more houses to the market, further pressuring prices down.

Nationally, 1 in 7 homeowners currently with a loan over $1 million is seriously delinquent on mortgage payments. For loans less than $1 million, the ratio is closer to 1 in 12. As many luxury home owners saw the value of their homes drop dramatically when the housing market crashed, they were suddenly making huge payments on a house that was worth substantially less than the mortgage. Many wealthier homeowners realized this as a poor investment of their cash and decided to stop making payments; a “strategic default” action.

Considering that banks are very slow to seize high-end homes (expensive houses cost banks a lot of money to maintain and they are very difficult to sell during a slow housing market), and that abandoned homes lower neighborhood property values of surrounding houses, it is not in the best interest of banks to seize expensive homes facing foreclosure.

Many luxury homes have been priced unrealistically and will never sell at the current asking prices. Difficulty in securing a Jumbo loan to finance custom homes or luxury houses is the main reason for inactivity in the $500,000-$1,000,000 plus homes.

A massive and growing backlog of hidden foreclosures:
There is an enormous inventory of housing that is not yet on the market. Millions of homeowners in financial difficulty have simply stopped paying their mortgages, and the banks are allowing the owner live in the house for free. When a bank forecloses and takes possession of a house, the bank is responsible for property taxes and maintenance; an added cost to the bank. If a bank then sells the foreclosed house at current prices, the bank has to admit a loss on the loan. So there is a deluge of foreclosures approaching that the banks are ignoring, for the time being.

The median home price in the Tampa Bay area, for example, is $111,100, a 54 percent decline from the peak of $239,000, of June 2006. Presently, one in six houses in Florida are empty, and according a national delinquency survey, in the last quarter of 2010 more than 24 per cent of Florida home loans were either delinquent or in foreclosure.

For the investor or bargain hunter, ForeclosureListings.com reveals states that offer some possibilities of foreclosures in the market. California is the number one and this month registered 177,939 properties in foreclosure, representing an increase of 5.75 percent in comparison to just last month. California is followed by Florida with 140,505 foreclosed homes. In April Florida had 11.63 percent less properties available in March, reflective of the hidden tsunami of homes not yet registered with banks as explained above.

In Michigan, there was a difference of 37.16 percent down; 22,049 foreclosures in April compared to 35,088 in March. Texas also delivered negative statistics: 21,148 foreclosures in April against 34,952 in March, down 39.49 percent. But in Georgia, the state now has 65,246 foreclosures recorded, up 7.36 percent; a sign of having passed the point where banks have been able to keep the more expensive homes off the foreclosure lists.

Price of Foreclosure Listings in the Top 5 States by Month:

State 		January		February		March	 		April
Michigan	$344,540	$443,806 (+28.81%)	$536,910 (+20.98%)	$819,304 (+52.6%)
Georgia		$608,332	$579,212 (-4.79%)	$163,566 (-71.76%)	$661,360 (+304.34%)
Texas		$174,475	$192,904 (+10.56%)	$194,649 (+0.9%)	$254,468 (+30.73%)
California	$231,113	$222,047 (-3.92%)	$212,682 (-4.22%)	$202,897 (-4.6%)
Florida		$140,394	$134,631 (-4.1%)	$131,367 (-2.42%)	$137,028 (+4.31%)

ForeclosureListings.com charts top state foreclosures in relation to prices. Michigan changed a great deal from March to April. Currently, prices of expensive homes in foreclosure are over $862,630, an increase of 60.67 percent, similar to Georgia, which reflected a huge increase of 297.82 percent. In March the average price for a Georgia foreclosure was $163,566, but now is $650,693. Texas also showed an increase in the price value of properties in foreclosure. In March, the prices were up to $194,649, now prices are at numbers like $258,076; a 32.59 percent rise.

Notice that in California the scenario changed to a positive side, showing a reduction of 4.71 percent in home values, with a price average of $202,658 today compared to $212,682 last month. Florida, however, continues to struggle with the expensive value of foreclosed homes. In March the average price was $131,367 and now is $138,008 – a change of 5.06 percent.

Price of Foreclosure Listings in the Top 10 Cities by Month:

City		January		February	 	March			April
Brooklyn, NY	$463,109	$466,055 (+0.64%)	$473,802 (+1.66%)	$481,852 (+1.7%)
Detroit, MI	$265,346	$290,087 (+9.32%)	$360,048 (+24.12%)	$417,204 (+15.87%)
Los Angeles	$279,800	$270,379 (-3.37%)	$264,086 (-2.33%)	$259,272 (-1.82%)
Las Vegas	$130,315	$133,807 (+2.68%)	$133,977 (+0.13%)	$132,295 (-1.26%)
Chicago		$119,307	$119,624 (+0.27%)	$124,463 (+4.05%)	$128,137 (+2.95%)
Miami, FL	$134,061	$125,001 (-6.76%)	$117,633 (-5.89%)	$116,512 (-0.95%)
Jacksonville	$118,508	$111,866 (-5.6%)	$113,688 (+1.63%)	$113,195 (-0.43%)
Houston, TX	$90,771		$91,970 (+1.32%)	$94,190 (+2.41%)	$90,784 (-3.62%)
Phoenix, AZ	$95,713		$90,960 (-4.97%)	$90,010 (-1.04%)	$89,130 (-0.98%)
Atlanta, GA	$111,482	$109,439 (-1.83%)	$98,704 (-9.81%)	$89,052 (-9.78%)

See http://www.foreclosurelistings.com/foreclosure-rates/ for more up to date foreclosure information.

Chart images:
Image 1: http://www.foreclosurelistings.com/pressrelease/images/april-chart-1.jpg .
Image 1 Caption: Price of Foreclosure Listings in the Top 5 States by Month.

Image 2: http://www.foreclosurelistings.com/pressrelease/images/april-chart-2.jpg .
Image 2 Caption: Price of Foreclosure Listings in the Top 10 Cities by Month.

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Struggling with job losses and loans worth more than their home’s value, almost 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages, and more are expected to miss payments. Foreclosures are expected to remain high through 2011 as homeowners wrestle with continued high unemployment, more stringent refinancing credit standards, and decreasing home values.

Banks repossessed more than 1 million homes in 2010 and predictions are that lenders will repossess 1.2 million homes in 2011. Foreclosure filings last year exposed a record high of 2.9 million homes, or one in 45 U.S. households, despite government assistance programs to assist homeowners, and the government’s increased scrutiny of “robo-filings” which temporarily halted actions against borrowers who were critically behind on mortgage payments.

This temporary pause in the foreclosure trend was more a sign that lenders had become held up in reviewing procedures, formalities, resubmitting paperwork, and constructing legal arguments related to responses to accusations of improper foreclosure processing, than a sign of an enthusiastic housing recovery.

Most banks have since resumed their eviction processes, however, and the first quarter of 2011 is expected to reveal a rebound in foreclosure activity. As most professionals in the mortgage industry will state, once a trend, good or bad, is established, it takes a long time and/or something dramatic to reverse the trend. Low mortgage rates are unlikely to be enough by themselves to resurrect a housing market overwhelmed by declining housing prices, tighter credit standards, and high unemployment.

For example, the statistics for the top 5 states that had more foreclosures in February 2010 versus February 2011, and the average price of a home in foreclosure for that period are:

February 2010 top 5 states and their average foreclosure price
1. California – $383,471.00
2. Texas – $124,216.00
3. Michigan – $117,417.00
4. Florida – $220,252.00
5. Colorado – $240,537.00

February 2011 top 5 states and their average foreclosure price
1. California – $223,051.00
2. Florida – $134,871.00
3. Colorado – $168,731.00
4. Arizona – $95,648.00
5. Georgia – $597,701.00

Arizona, Georgia make the list in February 2011; Texas, Michigan are dropped:
Arizona experienced foreclosure filings of one in every 173 mortgages in January 2011. As trends show, this was significantly better than Nevada’s one in 92, California’s one in 200, Florida’s one in 406, and Texas’s (who made the list in 2010) one in 644.

In 2010 Texas was listed in the top 5 states mainly because of its sheer size and number of people. The U.S. Bureau of the Census reported that Texas added nearly 4.3 million people in the previous ten years; more people than any other state.

In 2011, more than half of lost jobs during Texas’ shorter, or less painful, recession have already been recovered as the Texas economy recovers more quickly than the rest of the nation as a whole. Nationally, only 13.4 percent of recession-hit jobs had been recovered ending 2010, and recent reports are that many of these are government jobs.

Michigan continues to struggle with employment problems but the new governor is determined to turn that state’s situation around without the assistance of the federal government, by cutting expenses and state spending, and luring businesses to stay or to join the state as it improves the economic conditions for businesses.

Almost 5 million borrowers are at least two months late on their mortgages:
The unfortunate foreclosure circumstances will likely be the most sensitive in states that have already been affected, including previous housing boom states Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California, in company with states that are suffering most from the economic decline, including Michigan and Illinois.

For the fourth straight year, Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate in 2010 despite a 5 percent decline in activity from 2009. One in every 11 Nevada households received a foreclosure filing in 2010. In December, foreclosures amplified 18 percent from November with a 71 percent soar in bank repossessions.

Arizona and California also displayed sharp December increases in the number of homes banks repossessed, at 52 percent and 47 percent, correspondingly. Arizona, where one in every 17 Arizona households received a foreclosure filing last year finished the year at No. 2 for the highest rates of foreclosure. Florida, where one in 18 households received a notice was listed at No. 3 in the nation.

News Source: ForeclosureListings.com :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .