AZ Foreclosure Picture

Arizona Association of Mortgage Professionals

AzAMP's Vice President Paul Klimke was interviewed by KTAR this morning about the Arizona  foreclosure situation.  Here's a portion of the online article that followed the radio interview.

AZ foreclosure picture is murky
by Bob McClay, Kevin Tripp,  KTAR
June 23rd, 2010

PHOENIX -- More people lost their homes as bank repossessions nationwide hit a monthly record high in May, according to Realty-Trac. But, those figures may not reflect what's happening in Arizona.

Lenders nationwide took back just under 94,000 properties in May, up 1 percent from April and 44 percent more than in May of 2009.

Paul Klimke of Amerifirst Financial said banks are now foreclosing on properties on which they had been slow to act for whatever reason -- "They didn't have the capacity to handle them or they are homes that could have very possibly been delayed from foreclosure because they were in the loan modification process."

Things are different in Arizona, Klimke said.

"Although our activity in May increased 1 percent over the activity in April, the actual foreclosure activity in Arizona is down 5 percent from May of 2009."   

Whether that trend continues remains to be seen, he said.

"Some of the foreclosures that were going to happen happened earlier in Arizona," said Klimke. "So we may be on the tailend of that. On the other hand, it might not have hit Arizona yet. We don't know what the numbers are for June and July. It's entirely possible that they will be up. We'll just have to wait and see."

Klimke said 55 percent of Arizona homeowners are "under water," meaning they owe more on their mortgage than what their home is worth.