Home Values Stabilizing in Arizona

Recent studies in Arizona have shown home sales rising and values leveling off. The good news however is limited to detached single family homes, Condominiums and townhouses still experienced a decline in October. The numbers reflect a large pool of investors grabbing up short sales and bank owned homes. With a steady flow of foreclosures still entering the Phoenix market the stabilization of the Arizona real estate market is still out if reach. Foreclosure information and short sale advice is mandatory reading for anyone in the Phoenix real estate market.

Loan Modification Licensing

There has been an abundance of news coverage on loan modification scams which have been going on for some time now. The homeowner in distress and fear of losing their home pays a loan modification company (in most cases $3000.00) to “represent” them and handle the loan modification process. They are told to ignore the correspondence from the lender and “wait it out” as it can be a long drawn out process. Meanwhile the unscrupulous “loan mod” company finds more victims and eventually disappears with everyone’s money.

This has caused the Arizona legislature to pass a bill requiring loan modification companies to be licensed by July of 2010. This is a necessary step to protect homeowners that are not able to use the free do it yourself loan modification programs available.