Arizona repo home listings continue to surge to an unprecedented high of 79 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period the previous year. This unabated spread of foreclosures ranked the state number two in the country in terms of foreclosure rate.

About 49,119 properties in Arizona received foreclosure filings in the first three months of this year, representing a 6 percent jump from the last period of 2008 and 79 percent increase compared with the first quarter a year ago.

Last March, Arizona registered 18,876 homeowners who received foreclosure filings, 4 percent higher from February and a whooping 105 percent increase from March of 2008.

This ever-increasing surge in the number of foreclosed homes in the state spawned a new breed of fraudsters who victimized homeowners in danger of going into repo home listings. Con artists know that many of distressed homeowners are desperate to avoid foreclosures and they use this knowledge to victimize them.

To address the growing number of foreclosure fraud cases, Arizona has intensified its efforts to stop these con artists from further ruining homeowners’ lives. Attorney General Terry Goddard has made an effort to make these con artists accountable for their crimes.

Goddard’s office has a pending lawsuit filed against Richard Winer who operates several limited-liability companies, including Homeowner Solutions LLC, Filibuster LLC, Taken Care of Investments LLC and Bourbon Street Property Management LLC.

Winer is charged of defrauding an estimated 400 homeowners in Arizona through his companies. According to court records, Winer and his sales team did their homework well by choosing only homeowners whom they could easily convince about their bogus service.

Court records said that Winer and his team would approach distressed homeowners, talk to them and promise them a sure way to save their properties from foreclosures. Winer and his team would structure the deals in such a way that would allow them to take over the distressed houses and their equities.

Meanwhile, Goddard conducted a criminal investigation of Bobby John Herrera who defrauded about 47 homeowners by posing as someone with influence over mortgage lenders and who could pave the way for preventing foreclosures.

Herrera took away around $1,245 upfront fees from each homeowner. He pleaded guilty on charges of fraud and was sentenced to prison and to give restitution payment of $73,000.

Goddard said that complaints about repo home listings fraud increased 30 percent in the state, with an estimated 450 homeowners losing their properties on fraudulent schemes.

According to Donald E. Cardon, director of ADOH, the current rise in foreclosure homes and low interest rates are reasons enough to purchase a house in Arizona.

The state’s program will subsidize 22 percent of the foreclosed property?s sale price for potential homeowners. This will give a chance for eligible Arizonans to purchase and own affordable houses and for the state to reduce its number of bank foreclosed house.

The program will be packaged as differed second mortgage loans with no interest, no monthly mortgage payment and, after a period of time, can be forgivable. Several factors that will be used as basis for a person’s eligibility for the program include ratio of debt to income, area median income, participation in a Home-buyer Education Class and the intention to use the house as primary residence.

Under the program, potential homebuyers are required to buy a repossessed single-unit detached family home, townhouse or condominium. The ADOH has allocated over $20 million to fund the assistance program.

The program was made possible by the funding under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development. The NSP was launched by the Obama Administration as part of its efforts to help stabilize communities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.

Arizona was ranked the fourth state with the highest foreclosure rate in April. According to market data, one in every 164 homeowners received a foreclosure filing last month.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said that the average sales price of existing houses in Tucson dropped to $176,000, from $221,000 last year.

The 20 percent decline in the median home price in Tucson was less than 50 percent of the 42 percent drop in sales price in the Phoenix metropolitan area where prices languished at $129,000.

The drastic drop in median sales prices in major cities in Arizona was attributed to the increase in the number of bank foreclosed house in the real estate market.

In addition, there was also 44 percent increase in year-over-year foreclosure activity, with one filing for every 178 homes. Fort Lauderdale topped the list of metropolitan cities with the highest foreclosures with 18,316 filings. This figure is 17.7 percent more last August.

On the other hand, Miami placed at the 13th spot with 14,050 foreclosure filings. It was a 7.93 percent drop from the previous quarter but a 37.3 percent increase from last year. Palm Beach came in at the 19th spot with 7,515 filings, up by 5.25 percent compared to the second quarter and 65.3 percent from the third quarter of last year.

The good news is ? national foreclosure rate for September declined by about 12 percent compared to August, with one filing for every 475 homes. Comparing it to last year, the foreclosure activity across the nation actually jumped by 21 percent.

According to the online marketer, the 12 percent decline can be attributed to the numerous state laws which were passed to slow down the foreclosure crisis. There were states that required lenders to notify the troubled borrowers several times before proceeding with a foreclosure filing while there were states that extended the number of months a distressed homeowner can negotiate with their lenders.

Last October 3, a $700 billion bailout program was approved to address the crisis in the financial market, which is tied to the housing industry. Despite this, experts and analysts are still worried that the collapse in the finance sector will result to more houses for sale.

Janet Napolitano, Arizona’s governor said that the funding received would further help Arizona tackle the foreclosure problem and help repair affected neighborhoods. She was one of the governors who had urged President Bush to show support to the bill. Programs currently running in Arizona to help reduce Arizona foreclosure listings are to receive support by the new bill, besides the funding that will be provided to launch new schemes for the housing sector, the office also said.

Various programs have already been launched in Arizona to address the problems of the housing sector. The governor has been conferring with loan servicers and lenders to discuss ways of helping families from Arizona avoid foreclosures.

A toll free hot-line has been launched where local counselors trained specifically in foreclosure related matters will speak to people with foreclosure issues. A state legislation has been signed in order to regulate and provide licenses to loan originating personnel.

Representatives of the government, along with leaders of the community, lenders and more than a hundred and twenty five organizations have come together to form the Arizona Foreclosure Prevention Task Force, which will put in efforts to reach out to and educate people who are part of the growing number of foreclosures in the state.

An increase in funding for the Emergency Housing and Eviction Prevention program has been made. This program helps families facing hard times on a one time basis, providing funds for utility aid, payments for mortgage or rent and deposits for housing.

Additional resources have been added to the Housing Trust Fund which will finance training programs for counseling in foreclosures across Arizona and efforts to reach out to areas that have been hit the hardest. The bill passed by President Bush will help the program to continue.

Arizona has been recording very high number of foreclosures and July has been no different. July witnessed an increase that has lead to, one out of every 20 mortgage borrowers in Arizona behind by at least 30 days on their payments. But that?s not all. Adding to the existing woes of the residents of Arizona are the declining prices of residential properties, mounting Arizona foreclosure listings, and a slow construction scenario. All combined together have pushed Arizona foreclosure rates to dizzying heights (no pun intended)!

Perhaps that?s why Foreclosure listings in Arizona have been a favorite haunt of not just real estate brokers and lenders but also real estate investors and first time homebuyers.

In June, one per every 201 Arizona households was facing various stages of foreclosure. This figure is 2.5 times the country average for foreclosures. Almost 13,000 foreclosure filings were reported from various parts of Arizona. Though this is almost a percent down from May, it is still 127% more from June last year.

The Arizona foreclosure lists are packed with all types of residential properties from almost all cities in the State including Maricopa and Phoenix Counties, where value of homes dropped by 25% but foreclosures increased by six times. According to the CEO of RealtyStore, Tim Chin, Arizona’s residential property prices will continue to fall through the year 2008 and may tend to stabilize only post the 2nd quarter of 2009.

And, with a glut of discounted foreclosures flooding the real estate market in Arizona, both the online foreclosure experts and brokers are hoping that Arizona foreclosure listings will attract more and more investors to carry the market from it current state to a better and more hopeful position.