Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Arizona home sales propped up by investors

by Catherine Reagor - Oct. 17, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Investors are dominating metropolitan Phoenix's home-buying market again.

The region's growing supply of inexpensive foreclosure homes is drawing thousands of investors, who can pay cash and close deals fast. The growing supply of renters means those investors can make money off the homes they have scooped up.

The market has drawn a diverse crowd of investors, spurring small-scale landlords to add more homes to their holdings and attracting buyers from around the world looking to get in on a down market.

It also has quietly attracted investment firms that are buying huge quantities of houses in a strategy aimed at reaping big profits from today's low prices. Big investors are showing so much interest that some observers say lenders may soon start selling foreclosure homes in bulk batches, an unprece- dented tactic in metro Phoenix where the homes have always been sold in small groups or one at a time.

Whether the investor-buying trend of the past few months continues at this pace in the Phoenix area depends in some part on the foreclosure moratoriums announced in the past few weeks by a handful of the nation's biggest lenders. So far, many Valley real-estate agents and investors aren't seeing a drop in supply of fore- closure homes for sale or problems finalizing sales on lender-owned homes.

Continue reading here.

No comments:

Post a Comment