Thousands of Valley homeowners fell into foreclosure last month, and experts say the problem is likely to get worse before it gets better.

A total of roughly 5,300 properties entered foreclosure in January, compared with just 3,658 Valley home sales during the same period, according to local research data firm Information Market. Another just over 2,000 properties were actually foreclosed on. And more than 15,000 properties are currently in foreclosure, a new report from the company shows.

Experts say more foreclosures are on the horizon for the region as home prices continue to slide. Falling home prices have hit many families hard this past year. Many people with adjustable-rate mortgages have been unable to refinance because they owe the bank more than their homes are worth. Some are negotiating with lender to let them do a short sale - where the bank accepts less than what’s owed. Others are just walking away and letting their homes go into foreclosure.

Read more on Valley foreclosures here: “Number of homeowners who can’t afford payments escalates.”

You can also find a list of recent East Valley foreclosures by ZIP code at tribunehomefinder.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.