Maricopa County foreclosure rates are falling again after bumping up slightly in January. The rate of new Notices of Trustee Sale is 107 per working day over the last 30 days and 93 so far in February.

The peak rate was 498 on March 12, 2009. The lowest rate seen since January 1, 2001 is 30 per working day on April 17, 2006. Trustee deeds are running at 65 per working day (64 for February month to date). The peak level was 270 on March 3, 2009 and the lowest seen was 1 on March 6, 2006.

We all know the inventory has been low while the demand is still strong. The imbalance of demand and supply pushes the prices higher. However the shortage of new inventory is highly concentrated in certain price ranges. By price range the change in new inventory compared with last February is:

• Below $100,000 – down 51%
• $100,000 to $200,000 – up 4%
• $200,000 to $300,000 – up31%
• $300,000 to $500,000 – up 36%
• $500,000 to $1M – up 22%
• Over $1M – up 9%

We can see that the disappearing new listings are in the price ranges below $100,000. In fact new listings are down for all ranges below $125,000 and up for all price ranges above that level.

All in all, distressed properties becomes a lot less and this is inline with our earlier finding that cash purchase get less and investor activities also winding down.