By Mike Bodeen · 24 March 2025
Pending Foreclosures Creeping Up
The good news for buyers keeps getting better! Mortgage rates have remained under 7% for several weeks now, while listings (choices) continue to increase. How much have listings increased? This week’s chart shows active listings (not under contract) reaching 25,000 – which is Phoenix Metro’s average number of listings. Now if they could remain around this number plus some (25,000 to 30,000) we’d be looking towards a normalized market.
The last time available listings reached this high was back in 2014. Have the additional listings and lower rates resulted in greater sales activity? No. Not yet, anyway. So far, listings under contract have mimicked 2024’s pace, which was the lowest sales year since April 2009. This tells me that we still have either an overpriced market or that rates are still too high for the average buyer – or both.
“…available listings reached this high back in 2014. Have the additional listings and lower rates resulted in greater sales activity? Not yet…”
On top of this data, the Greater Phoenix area sees the number of listing price drops increasing each week, now over 3000 per week. 2 years ago, we saw about half that amount of listing price drops.
**Mike’s Analysis:** Buyer market continues upward trend.
Maricopa County Pending Foreclosures Nearing 5 Year High
Pending foreclosures in Maricopa County have been steadily creeping upward since 2022 reaching a current level of 1300. BUT, this is still tiny compared to the height of the great recession in 2009 when 50,000 properties were in foreclosure.
But it’s trending upward. Our low was January 2022 when we had only about 500 pending properties in the process of foreclosure.
This increase is a direct result of a borrower’s inability to sell their home or refinance their existing mortgage. If the market continues to suffer, these numbers will increase at a greater rate in the months ahead.