Half of all homes sold in Pinal County last month were bank-owned, compared with 37.5 percent in January, according to a recent report from local analyst RL Brown.

In Maricopa County, 22.3 percent of all sales were homes that had been repossessed by lenders.

The spike in bank-owned properties, called REOs, doesn’t come as a surprise.

Last year’s wave of foreclosures has only grown in 2008 with thousands of Valley families defaulting on their mortgages every month.

Agents say the banks have so many foreclosures and REOs to deal with that it’s sometimes taking months to get a response on a short sale offer.

That’s a major hurdle for struggling homeowners whose only escape from foreclosure is a short sale — when the bank agrees to accept less than what a borrower owes.

One real estate agent I spoke with recently said a couple she was working was foreclosed on while waiting to hear back from the bank on a short sale offer.

The good news is that agents say REO deals take much less time and often offer big discounts. Either way banks are desperate to get rid of tens of thousands of homes, so the deals are out there.

Valley renters can enjoy a little good news in today’s flagging economy.

The average rent here has remained stagnant the last six months, according to a new report from research firm RealFacts. The average rent in the first three months of the year — $817 — was up 1.5 percent from the same period a year ago but unchanged from the fourth quarter 2007, the report shows.

Rent growth has steadily slowed in the past year, as tens of thousands of frustrated home sellers put their homes up for rent amid the housing downturn.

At the same time, developers have thrown failed condominium conversion projects back onto the market as apartments, also upping the supply.

In response to the increased competition, a growing number of landlords are trying to lure in tenants with concessions, such as a month’s free rent. Others are waiving move-in costs.

An estimated one in every 18 Arizona homeowners will face foreclosure in the next two years, according to a new study by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

But while Arizona has one of the highest projected foreclosure rates, the state has been slow to respond to the problem, compared with other more proactive states, such as North Carolina and Ohio, the report states.

Nationwide, the nonprofit organization estimates one and every 33 homeowners will be in foreclosure over the next two years.

Some states have been quicker to experiment with solutions than others.

* Maryland recently extended the foreclosure process from 15 to 150 days.

* Ten states, including Minnesota and North Carolina, have banned most prepayment penalties.

* North Carolina, as well as Colorado, Maine and others, now require lenders to assess a borrower’s ability to repay an adjustable-rate loan after the teaser rate has ended.

* Nine states have established loan funds to help refinance borrowers with loans they can’t afford.

* A total of 13 states, including Arizona, have counseling hotlines.

The list goes on.

In 2007, Arizona created a foreclosure task force. The state also has a consumer hotline and education campaign, the study shows. What Arizona doesn’t have are laws relating to high-cost loans or foreclosure intervention, which others states do. The study also names Florida and Utah as states that have been slower to react to the crisis.

Still, it remains unclear whether the measures being taken by other states will be successful and to what extent.

Nationwide, building permits for new homes last month dropped 5.8 percent from February and were down 40.9 percent from a year ago, according to the Department of Commerce.

Experts say the building slowdown is a good sign because metropolitan areas like Phoenix are still trying to work through a glut of homes for sale.

With 9,199 new foreclosure filings reported in March, Arizona posted the fourth highest foreclosure rate in the country — a distinction it has carried three months in a row now.

Statewide, foreclosure activity dipped 5 percent last month from February but was still up nearly 106 percent from March 2007, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties.

Nationwide, one in ever 538 American households received a foreclosure filing — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — in March, a RealtyTrac report shows.

“Overall foreclosure activity so far this year continues to run nearly 60 percent above the levels we saw last year,” CEO James Saccacio said in a statement.

The top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates also included Nevada, California, Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts and Maryland.

The Valley’s foreclosure troubles are far from over.

On average, 255 new foreclosure notices have been filed every day for the past four months, according to research data firm Information Market.

A total of 6,666 foreclosures were reported in the first three months of 2008, and another 10,000 are expected in the second quarter, the Glendale-based company reported.

So the wave continues. When will it slowdown? It doesn’t appear anytime soon, especially considering the dour state of the economy.

Many homeowners have been unable to keep pace with rising mortgage payments as adjustable-rate loans reset.

Now, experts say making those payments may become even tougher for families who are facing job layoffs or salary reductions as recession worries mount.

The increase was ever so slight, but sales of existing Gilbert homes rose for the second month in a row in March — bucking the downward spiral impacting every other East Valley city.

The town saw 295 sales last month, compared with 290 in March 2007, according to an Arizona State University study. In February, sales hit 265, up from 230 the previous year.

The increases are small, but I find it interesting there were upticks at all. Valleywide in March, sales were down nearly 20 percent from a year ago.

So what’s causing the slight rise? I’ve asked real estate agents who work in that area, but they don’t seem to have any answers. Perhaps, it’s just a blip.

In any case, falling home prices have opened up new opportunities for buyers in the past year. So some families might decide it’s time to strike a deal.

Local real estate agents have seemed a bit more upbeat these days. It is springtime, after all, when potential buyers hit the open house circuits again after the holiday crazy is over.

More people have been showing interest but will that translate to actual sales?

The National Association of Realtors thinks so. The trade group is projecting that existing home sales will begin to pick up in the second half of 2008, as recently established higher mortgage loan limits give more people access to financing.

“Existing home sales could start to show a sustained increase within a few months, unless there are some additional economic problems or excessive inflationary pressure,” said Lawrence Yun, the association’s chief economist.

Existing home sales are expected to rise from an annual pace of 4.9 million in the first three months of this year to 5.9 million in the final months of 2008, according to a recent report by the group.

The shaky economy, experts say, is the biggest wild card that could stymie a housing market rebound. When wallets are tight and job security is no longer a guarantee, taking on a new mortgage is not on the forefront of most people’s minds.

Still, recent activities in the Valley — busier open houses, a growing number of pending deals, more phone calls to agents — seem to indicate at least some nervous buyers are stepping off the sidelines. Out-of-area investors are also taking an interest in the Valley, buying up large tracts of land. Commercial real estate experts say that could be a sign that investors believe the bottom is near or already at hand.

If buyer activity began to pick up earlier this year, that should translate into more sales in the next few months. And you can bet local housing analysts and agents are keeping a close eye on those numbers, hoping to glimpse a sign that recovery may be around the corner.

Buying a home is the biggest purchase most Americans will ever make. So it would make sense that people would invest the time to painstakingly scrutinize their mortgage options. Right?

But a recent survey of 2,900 adults shows that most typically spend only five hours researching home loans, according to a Zillow.com study. To put that into perspective, those surveyed, on average, spend eight hours researching a car purchase and 10 hours considering major home improvements, such as kitchen remodels, Zillow reported. The survey, which was conducted last month by research firm Harris Interactive, also showed that people spend roughly five hours planning a single vacation.

“What most people don’t realize is the type and terms of a loan are often more significant than the actual purchase price as these factors can dramatically affect the affordability of a home,” Zillow CFO Spencer Rascoff said in a statement.

On the bright side, the people surveyed seemed to indicate a desire to do more in-depth research in the future. Those who plan to get a loan or refinance within the next year said they expect to get six mortgage quotes, on average, according to the study. That’s compared to the four quotes on average obtained by people who secured a mortgage in the past five years.

nbsp;Forbes.com recently ranked the country’s riskiest real estate markets with the Valley coming in at No. 10.

The publication sited a suffering job market that has been supported by the construction industry and a five-fold increase in the number of homes for sale since 2005.

The top 10 also included: Detroit (No. 1), Orlando (No. 2), Cleveland (No. 3), St. Louis (No. 4), Miami (No. 5), Las Vegas (No. 6), Sacramento (No. 7), Denver (No.8) and Tampa (No. 9).