A Preview of Housing Armageddon?

L occasionally sends me something from IMAPP, a program available through ARMLS. [Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service] Using IMAPP, you can look up a property and see a map showing listings and foreclosures in an area.  Listings are shown with green signs, foreclosures are represented by gavels.  Foreclosures can be at any stage from having received a "Notice of Trustee’s Sale" to being a REO.  When L sent me this one from El Mirage, [a Phoenix suburb] it really caught my attention:

Does this look like a preview of Housing Armageddon, or is it just me?

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14 Comments for this entry

  1. stuffingmonkey says:

    Little gavels…

    How cute.

  2. metroplexual says:

    And what do you want to bet that a majority of the green signs turn to gavels over the next year.

  3. twist says:

    By the way-

    We weren’t cherry picking here. L also sent me maps from Tolleson, Peoria, Avondale, Glendale, Surprise, Mesa and N. Phoenix. [Although these communities are all less centrally located]

    Basically any areas that had a lot of activity during the height of the boom are seeing a lot of pain now.

  4. Moin,

    amazing!

    Don´t know if this has been posted yet but the interactive is also breathtaking.

    Especially the concentration from one German lender… :-)

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7070935.stm

  5. twist says:

    Jan-Martin-

    I saw the original article on Cleveland that the BBC was quoting, and it said that one in ten homes in Cleveland are now empty as a result of foreclosures. [ Although I suspect that economic problems have encouraged moving out as well.]

    Reading that article actually is what prompted this post. I have to wonder what the percentages of empty houses will be in the former bubble markets like Phoenix, Las Vegas and Miami. I think it’s going to be a bunch.

  6. John in LV says:

    Can you produce such a map for Las Vegas?
    Thanks

  7. theIndividualist says:

    I live and lend in Phoenix and have since 2002. I was also here in the late 80′s when the market was crushed by the real estate tax law changes of 1987. At that time, HUD was taking back 300 homes per month. Whe I moved back to the Valley, I managed several offices for Coutrywide and warned my loan officers of the impending nightmare of foreclosures once values reached their cyckical peaks and started to decline. I was laughed at…”the market will always be great here”, “the economy is different now”, “we’re the fastest growing city in the country”, they said. The “drive to qualify” communities (Peoria, El Mirage, Tolleson, Queen Creek, Suprise and others) are nw turning in on themselves as values drop, loan balances increase and loans recast. They’ll be the first to fall, but the elite neighborhoods of Paradise Valley and Scottsdale are having a nasty upswing in foreclosures as well. We won’t see the bottom of this slide until the 2nd quarter of 2009 at best. Until then, it’s “Hammer Time” in Phoenix…

  8. Asset Hunter says:

    ‘Until then, it’s “Hammer Time” in Phoenix…’

    Hammer Time! That’s good!!

    That comment could be the start of a whole list of MC Hammer applicable statements:

    2005 prices — “you can’t touch this”
    REIC mocking — “too legit to quit”
    Active listing underwater sellers — “you got to pray”

    and the beat(ings) go on :-)

  9. agnostic says:

    There clearly need to be better descriptors than just a sign and a gavel…

    a mosquito for a green pool

    a garbage can for a house that’s been trashed

    three zzz’s for a house listed at more than 20% above recent comps (he/she is dreaming)

    maybe a water fountain for a house where the copper mysteriously vanished.

    I’m sure you guys can come up with others.

  10. nordag says:

    Asset Hunter & Agnostic-
    You guys just made my day.
    Tears in my eyes prevent me from continuing…

  11. twist says:

    Agnostic-

    Cobwebs for abandoned homes?

  12. sandman says:

    twist/agnostic:

    cat food can for a Realtor-owned flip?

  13. Purple Shoes says:

    Tumbleweeds for abandoned streets

  14. twist says:

    A telephone for REOs? [Since it takes weeks to get a response from these swamped lenders, you need to keep on calling]

Comments are now closed.