Phoenix: Foreclosures still driving region's home prices down

09-21-2010 • AZcentral.com

The median home-resale price in August for Maricopa County was $135,000, down from $137,500 in July and $138,000 in August 2009, according to the report, which was released Monday. About two-thirds of all home-resale activity continued to be driven by home foreclosures, the report said. There were 3,990 single-family, detached-home foreclosures in August, up from 3,865 foreclosures in July and 3,085 foreclosures in August 2009. There were 4,800 existing-home sales in August, Butler said, down slightly from 5,080 sales in July, and a 25 percent drop from the August 2009 total of 5,995 sales. It is possible that the area's three-year-long home-price downturn is being prolonged by the desire of some financially distressed homeowners to stay put and ride out the recession, he said. "I think there's a group of people who thought they were going to hang on," Butler said. "They may have maxed out their credit cards waiting for the job market to come back, and that hasn't happened."