Mortgage lenders in Arizona have been approving a record number of short sales recently and this trend could continue and spread nationally. Rather than taking back homes and selling them at auction, bankers are more frequently allowing distressed owners to sell the homes for less than the borrowers owe. The trend could lead to rising sales prices, because short sales tend to sell for higher prices than homes taken back by lenders and resold at auction.
Arizona’s mortgage delinquency rate is down 32 percent since 2009, a bigger drop than any other state.