Foreclosures are Coming

You've probably seen the headlines — foreclosures are UP in Maricopa County! Sixty percent! And yeah, technically, that's true. We went from about 300–350 notices a month to somewhere around 450–500. Great headline. Sells papers.

Here's what it means for you as a buyer.

Nothing. Not a thing.

Let me tell you what I'm actually seeing on the ground. Our team — the NEXT Real Estate Team at HomeSmart — does a lot of business. HomeSmart has over 7,000 agents in Arizona and we're in the top ten producing teams. So if foreclosures were really flooding the market, we'd be swimming in them. This year? We've had exactly ONE approved short sale. Not a foreclosure. A short sale. That's it. Not one client of ours has been recently foreclosed on. So when the headline says foreclosures are "up 60%," what it really means is we went from a small number to a slightly bigger small number. It's a bump. It's not a crash.

Now here's the human piece of this, because real estate is an emotional business. When you hear "foreclosures are up," your brain goes straight back to 2007–2010. We all remember. People losing their shorts, deals on every corner, and most of us look back on that time thinking, man, I wish I'd bought more houses when I had the chance. So of course you hear the news and wonder if it's happening again. But put 2009 on the chart next to today's numbers and it's not even close. Not the same market. Not the same story.

So yeah — the headline is accurate. Foreclosures in Maricopa are up. But the picture your brain paints when you hear that? That's not what's actually happening out here.

That said — there ARE good buys right now. If you want a shot at options that aren't already sitting on Zillow, Realtor, or Redfin for everybody else to fight over, tell me your must-haves. Our marketing team is really good at digging up stuff you won't find on your own. Let's take a look.

I got you.