U.S. mortgage foreclosures rise 30%, Ariz. up 74%

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Bloomberg News

U.S. foreclosures rose 58 percent in the first half of 2007 from a year earlier, led by California and Florida, as more homeowners fell behind on their monthly mortgage payments, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

Arizona ranked No. 8 in the country, with 27,515 foreclosure fillings in the first six months of the year, according to RealtyTrac. That figure is a 74 percent increase on the previous six months and represents one foreclosure filing for every 92 Arizona households.

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Arizona's numbers are not a surprise to broker John Deidicker, who said it makes sense considering that the frenzied buying of the most recent housing boom continued through the end of 2005.

"It's the fact that any time you have a boom, you always have latecomers. And then after it's all done you, have people who don't believe it's over yet," said Deidicker, senior associate broker with Scottsdale-based DPR Realty. "That's why we continued to see a pretty strong market at the end of '05."

Deidicker chalked the numbers up to subprime mortgage woes and buyers who were just overly optimistic when the housing boom of 2005 was coming to a halt.

"I think a lot of them bought within their means, but they financed it 100 percent and they bought late in the market so they need to sell their house now," he said. "Now they find out their 100-percent financing is now 110 percent because the market's dropped." The results today reflect a new methodology by RealtyTrac. The company for the first time reported on what it calls "unique addresses," or properties that have had at least one foreclosure- related legal filing. In previous reports, RealtyTrac had only reported the number of legal filings, which could have resulted in properties being double and triple counted.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles...sures30-ON.html

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I'm totally preparing to buy a foreclosure home in a few years in Alexandria, VA.. houses are so bloody expensive there!

a townhouse 1-2 bedroom goes for just under a Million in some places!

[Mononoke28 135]

Colorado was the #1 state as of a few months ago. Real Estate went up the roof about 7 years ago, people kept getting APR mortgages left and right and now they can't keep up. Florida will be next for sure.