Bank and Government Foreclosed Homes Push Back Predicted Recovery

  The number of bank and government foreclosed homes continues to rise in Arizona, forcing industry analysts to change their projections as to when the state's housing market will start to recover. In Phoenix, the expected rebound in the housing market is pushed back by another 12 months.

According to housing experts, the number of foreclosures in Mesa and in the rest of the state has risen last year to a number that is higher than what was initially predicted. The anticipated improvement in the job market and projected rise in population also failed to materialize, resulting in analysts reversing their prediction that the state and the metro area of Phoenix in particular, will start experiencing a housing recovery by 2014.

Arizona foreclosures will remain a major problem for the residential property industry, analysts have stated, but the biggest one will be the job market. Industry analysts have stated that the values of properties in Phoenix will not recover until more jobs are created in the region and more people migrate into Arizona to shore up the purchasing strength of the state.

The problem, some housing industry experts have stated, is that Phoenix and the rest of Arizona is only around 50% through with processing bank and government foreclosed homes. This means that the area is facing another four or five years before the supply of troubled properties are exhausted. It also means that the number of properties that will be taken by lenders can reached 300,000 before the problem ends.

Since the start of the housing industry crisis, around 150,000 repossessions and foreclosed homes were recorded in the area and this number is only about half of all potentially troubled properties, analysts have revealed. They also stated that prices of properties in the region will not return to normal levels until 2015. The median price of houses in 2003, the last year before the market boom and the subsequent bust happened, was $155,000. Currently, median price is at around $144,000.

Economists stated that the prices of homes, including bank and government foreclosed homes, are unlikely to improve this year. They did however, stated that values of dwellings will start to gradually improve by 2012, with prices projected to post a five to 7% rise in values each year starting next.