Arizona Foreclosures - Foreclosures Aid Gets Rolling As Arizona Benefits

Foreclosures Arizona Benefits

April 11th, 2008

Foreclosures have also started to stalk Arizona state in southwestern US. Its largest city and capital Phoenix has not been spared; neither are the other big cites of Arizona - Tucson, Flagstaff, Mesa, Glendale and Yuma. This land of hot summers and mild winters, this paradise of deserts shaking hands with pine forests on mountain ranges is now buckling under foreclosure threats. It is the fastest growing state in the country – having outrun its nearest rival Nevada. Perhaps this success story is one of the main cause of the foreclosure crisis of today. Developers swarmed in trying to make quick profits during the housing boom. But that balloon has now burst causing this grim situation.

Arizona has been sanctioned $1.45 million from the federal funding kitty to tackle the ever increasing number of foreclosures. The amount is a spill off from the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program. This is the first of its kind that is for the sole purpose for preventing foreclosures from infecting Arizona.

The picture in Arizona is grim. Last month Phoenix lost 2,250 houses to foreclosures. The same number of families were thus affected. Since 1990 this is the maximum number of transgressions.

Thirteen state housing counseling groups will work in tandem with the Arizona Department of Housing to utilize this money. Two other non-profit bodies engaged in the same task will each be sanctioned $60,000 from the total of $1.45 million that has been set aside for victimized borrowers reeling under the onslaught of foreclosures. By next month another new hot line will be set up in addition to the one that is already running.

Apart from this funding the state has expanded its programme related to eviction from and prevention of foreclosures by increasing its own funds from $2.75 million to $4.2 million. An extra amount of $500,000 has been kept for helping those who are in zones where there has been a concentration of foreclosed houses.

Today in March 2008, Arizona ranks 4th in the foreclosure race across the country. Arizona is right in the thick of the foreclosure mess that is choking the nation. Foreclosure activity in Arizona was up by 6%in February 2008 from January of this year. It is double that of February 2007. One out of 264 houses in Arizona is in foreclosure. At all levels the authorities are desperate for solutions.