More renters in the Phoenix area are finding notices of foreclosure auctions on their front doors.
The number of rental homes in the region falling into foreclosure is climbing. There are now about 6,025 houses  - classified as rentals on real estate documents - in foreclosure, reports Netvaluecentral Inc.
The figure has climbed by more than 200 in two months.
Netvalue has a site open to the public that allows the region's renters to see if the home they're leasing is in foreclosures: www.aznvc.com.
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Home prices in metropolitan Phoenix have been slipping during the past month, prompting concern about a double dip in the region's housing values.
So far, Phoenix-area home prices are still well above the low they hit in March 2009.
The average price-per-square-foot of metro Phoenix home sales fell to $89.38 this week, according to Mike Orr's Cromford Report that analyzes daily sales data from the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service and public records. Current sale prices are down about 4 percent from a month ago when the average square foot sale price was $92.90.
The low for the region's home prices during this ...

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Apartment owners must compete with the landlords of the growing number of former foreclosure homes for rent in metropolitan Phoenix now.
The average apartment rent dipped to $721 during the second quarter, reports national multi-family research firm RealFacts. The region's average apartment rent was $725 during the first quarter, and $766 last summer.
Most metro areas tracked by RealFacts posted increases in rental rates in the latest survey. The firm puts the national average rent at $950, up $7 from the first quarter.
Metro Phoenix's apartment occupancy recently rate climbed half a percentage point to 88.6 percent.
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A dozen more former Phoenix real estate agents and loan officers have been indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for mortgage fraud schemes.
In two separate cases, loan officers, escrow and real estate agents and an appraiser have been charged with conspiracy, bank and wire fraud and money laundering.
 
Thomas Gregory Alexander, Paul Patrick Alexander and Bobbie Jo Johnson, Kara Elizabeth Shumway, Michael S. Mason, Sandra M. Stevens and Michael Joseph Harris have made initial appearances in court on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and false statements.
According to the U.S. Attorney's indictment, Thomas Alexander was a loan originator for American ...

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The Phoenix-area housing market continues to settle. The impact of the federal homebuyer tax credit on sales and the loan-modification program on foreclosures is still difficult to fully determine.
Indicators from the region's housing market are mixed. The number of foreclosures climbed, but the number of foreclosure homes resold by lenders didn't. New-home sales sagged, but the median price of all home sales ticked up above expectations.
Here are the latest key housing numbers for the Phoenix area:
Foreclosures climbed about 20 percent, to 4,894, last month, according to the Information Market. But pre-foreclosures, or notice of trustee sales, fell 5 percent, to ...

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Nationally, the U.S. Attorney's office recently announced results of its mortgage fraud crackdown called Operation Stolen Dreams. The most recent indictments for the crackdown in metropolitan Phoenix inlcuded former loan officers involved in cash-back schemes that artificially inflated the area's home values and led to the housing market's crash.
On June 1st, a federal grand jury in Phoenix returned a 30-count indictment against Jamie Lee Lawler, a former Countrywide loan officer and Phoenix real estate investor, and Brett Matheson of
Scottsdale, for wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering for roles in a $38 million "mortgage fraud scheme."        
        The indictment alleges between 2005 and 2007, Lawler and Matheson conspired ...

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