The leatest on the AZ housing front

There's good news and bad news for the Valley's housing market.

The good news is it's getting a little easier to sell your house because there are a lot fewer foreclosures to compete against.

"You may find quite a bit of interest, but the real problem is getting them qualified for the lending," said Dr. Jay Butler, director or realty studies at ASU.

He said the bottom may be in sight, but the market could stay there for a while. "It's going to be difficult to recover and it's really going to vary tremendously from area to area."

Butler said programs to help people keep their homes are helping lower the number of foreclosures on the market, but he's concerned that the Phoenix housing market is not yet reflecting the current job market.

"Without jobs you don't have income and without income you don't buy homes," Butler said.

Foreclosures made up about 51 percent of home resales in March. In April, that number dropped to 27 percent, yet the total number of resales climbed.

"Unfortunately we're sort of entering this period of the classic foreclosure which is where people lost jobs or income and now simply really cannot afford the home they're in," said Butler.

Arizona is one of only six states where home sales didn't drop the first quarter of this year.

"Well, I think we've probably got the bottom in sight largely because in some areas you'd really find it hard to go any lower," said Butler.

Realty Trac's Darren Blomquist said, while the news is encouraging, he doubts the crisis is over.

"Believe it or not, there's still a lot of homeowners out there in Arizona and other markets who are very susceptible to foreclosures, still," he said.

He agreed with Butler that the jobs market -- the high unemployment rate -- will force more foreclosures.

"From the previous year, Arizona's still trending upward in terms of foreclosure activity," he said.

"There's very high numbers of properties that are just starting the foreclosure process. So we'd expect that down the road in a few months those same properties will end up in the final stage of foreclosure, which we call reo, so that will continue to keep the numbers high for most of the rest of this year."