From the Foreclosed Dust of Phoenix is Rising a New Age

June 1st, 2009 | Tags: Foreclosure

Life goes on. It never comes to a standstill. From the foreclosed dust of Phoenix is rising a new age. Lou Jarvis is a busy man driving around the suburbs of Phoenix hunting for gold – bargains in foreclosure auctions. Jarvis works on behalf of many clients who are eager to take advantage of the falling real estate market. He bids on their behalf at the auctions. When he wins he gives the offer to the previous occupants to stay on as tenants – the amount being much less than the previous mortgage amount they used to pay.

This city bordering the desert has seen the housing market take one of the worst tumbles in the country. Nothing like this has happened since the time of the depression. There is an unending stream of foreclosed units feeding the market as one after another unit is sold or repossessed in the court auctions.
Adding to the complexity of the situation is a good number of families who can no longer be considered for loan application. This has been encouraging innumerable investors like Jarvis to make these people become tenants in the very houses that they once used to own.

The real estate mayhem did not spare anybody in Phoenix. This has led to the line of thinking that it is real estate that will help them surface again. Some areas with teeming speculators bidding at the auctions are eerie reminders of the boom days. While one is being shown around the house another snaps it up without delay. In another instance while the locks were being changed by the banks another person brought a locksmith after snapping up the house. Bidding wars have become a routine matter.

Most of the buyers are absent. They are either investors or individuals who are buying one fourth of the foreclosed houses being sold in the metro area of Phoenix according to MDA DataQuick. The sales have picked up by 50% from what it was towards the end of 2007 and are nearly the same as the peak period of 2005. Once more the craze is on – to become rich by buying houses or at least to compensate for some of the losses.

Jason Fischbeck is an entrepreneur He is one of the clients of Jarvis and said, “I bought too high a few years ago. It cost $225,000. Now it’s worth $110,000. So I just paid $80,000 cash for another.”