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Lenders foreclosed on 2,001 metro Phoenix homes in May, about 350 more than in April, according to AZ Bidder.

Foreclosure starts, or notice of trustee sales, ticked up slightly to 4,328 last month, compared to 4,255 in April.

Real estate analysts Tom Ruff attributes the slight increase to foreclosure moratoriums during the holidays delaying lenders’ actions against deliquent borrowers for a few months.
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The Arizona Housing Department is speeding up the development of low-income housing projects across the state.
The agency awarded $20 million in tax credits to 18 projects last week. Instead of the developers taking the typical two years to build the much-needed housing, the housing department has worked out deals for the projects to be completed in almost half the time.
 
“By finishing the projects faster, the developers can still receive the tax-credit gap financing incentive included in Housing and Economic Recovery Act,” said Michael Trailor, director of Arizona Housing Department.
 
The stimulus money, called the Tax Credit ...

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Home prices are rising in metro Phoenix, foreclosures are falling and a growing number of homeowners are able to refinance with the federal Housing Affordable Refinance Program, HARP 2.0.

Still, questions abound about the region’s housing market. Home values have climbed 25 percent already in the past year. Will the price-recovery trend continue? Are the bidding wars, created because of the small number of homes for sale, healthy for the market? How effective have the federal programs been so far?

Here are some comments on the topic from metro Phoenix homeowners who contacted me after recent ...

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After more than $500 million in federal allotments to Arizona to try to slow foreclosures, the latest federal housing-assistance program seems to be the first one to provide widespread help.
A growing number of metro Phoenix homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth are lowering their interest rates and monthly payments with the federal government's second version of its Home Affordable Refinancing Plan.

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While the federal government has yet to release figures on the number of homeowners in the program, mortgage brokers, homeowners and housing counselors are both surprised and encouraged by its early success.
The program allows homeowners with loans ...

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In another sign that metro Phoenix's housing market is slowly recovering, hundreds of homes across the region sold by banks after foreclosure or through short sales are being flipped by investors for almost double the price they paid just a few months earlier.
With metro Phoenix's median home price steadily climbing this year, speculators have seized on an opportunity to make fast profits and are selling houses across the region at prices not seen since the beginning of the housing boom in 2003-04.
Home prices have climbed as the supply of houses for sale has ...

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