Foreclosures are Coming

About Those Foreclosure Headlines… Let's Talk About What They Actually Mean

Okay — you've probably seen the headlines by now. "Foreclosures up 60% in Maricopa County!" And honestly? It's a great headline. It's designed to make you stop scrolling, and it worked. But before your stomach drops, pull up a chair and let me walk you through what those numbers actually mean.

Here's the real story. Maricopa County was posting around 300–350 foreclosure notices a month, and lately we're seeing 450–500. The math checks out — that's a 60% jump. Big-sounding number, right?

Here's what it means for you as a buyer: not much. Truly.

I'm part of the NEXT Real Estate Team — one of the top ten producing teams at HomeSmart out of more than 7,000 Arizona agents — so I want to put this in real-world terms. We do a lot of business. All year, we've had exactly one approved short sale. Not a foreclosure — a short sale. And zero recent client foreclosures. That's not what a market in trouble looks like.

But I get it. The second we hear "foreclosure," our brains zip right back to 2007–2010 — the deals, the sad stories, all of us kicking ourselves for not scooping up more houses when we had the chance. That's just human. So let's do something honest and drop 2009 onto the same chart —

— and suddenly today's numbers look a whole lot less scary, don't they? Yes, foreclosures are ticking up. No, we are not in 2009. Not even close.

Now — here's the part I don't want you to miss. There are good buys out there right now. I'm an overthinker (and honestly, that works in your favor), so I love digging past what's sitting on Zillow, Realtor, and Redfin to surface options most buyers never see. Our marketing team is award-winning for a reason, and if you send me your must-haves, we can go hunting together.

You bring the list. I'll do the digging. That's the fun part for me.

— Patty