Fear Mounts: Arizona Housing Prices Set To Double Dip

07-21-2010 • AZcentral.com

Short sales, priced below normal or traditional home sales, are climbing. During the past month, almost 28 percent of all of the region's home sales were short sales, up from 21 percent the month before. Short sales are better for home values than foreclosures but still pull down overall prices. • The prices of foreclosure homes taken back by lenders and resold had been climbing in the Phoenix area until June 25 but have fallen nearly 7 percent since then. • The number of foreclosure homes lenders are trying to resell has climbed 21 percent since June 8. • Normal or traditional home sales, excluding foreclosures and short sales, are down 30 percent from last month. The housing market received a boost from the federal homebuyer tax credit. But most of those sales have now been recorded. Some housing-market analysts believe Arizona's new immigration law is impacting home sales and foreclosures in the state. But whether the impact is negative or positive isn't