Rapidly Increasing Phoenix Foreclosures Overtake Tucson

On foreclosures by state basis, Arizona ranks #3 for the highest rate of foreclosed homes and had 27,404, which work out to be one foreclosure per 95 households. The single largest contributor to these escalated numbers are Phoenix foreclosures that account for 84% of the entire state's mortgage defaulters with one foreclosure filing for every 70 Phoenix households. Moreover, Phoenix now ranks as the 7 city with the highest foreclosure rate in the nation.

Another city in Arizona State, Tucson is also reeling under the foreclosure pressure and according to a ForeclosureConnections.com survey, Tucson accounts for only 6.8% of Arizona's total as compared to the overwhelming contribution of Phoenix city. Let's put this in perspective. With 16.2% of Arizona's population coming from Tucson, which means that there is one foreclosure per 224 Tucson households and a much better average than the national median of one per 194 households.

While bank foreclosed homes, tax foreclosure homes increased in Tucson between 60-90% (depending on the reporting source), this jump is not even near the rates of various foreclosures homes in Phoenix city or California. Though Nevada is the leader with the highest number of foreclosures at one per 54 households, California follows close behind with one per 78 household, while Arizona, Florida round off the top 4 states.

As the number of foreclosed homes keep piling up in Phoenix, such as government foreclosures and foreclosed properties in general, homeowners on the brink of foreclosure have started selling every conceivable item in their homes before the mortgage lenders come calling. This includes cabinets, hardwood flooring, pool pumps, air conditioning units, water heaters, and even kitchen sinks. While it's difficult to prevent these strapped for hard cash homeowners to stop hawking the utilities and items from these homes, some businesses are taking advantage of the situation and buying items at discounted rates only to sell them at profit.