Foreclosure data: Prices are close to the bottom

For the first time since the foreclosure crisis began, the price of a Phoenix-area foreclosed home is roughly the same as it was a year ago. Arizona State University professor Karl Guntermann, who publishes the monthly ASU Repeat Sales Index housing report, said preliminary data for December show the median price for a foreclosed home was down just 2 percent from December 2008. "If the preliminary numbers hold up, the foreclosure segment of the housing market will have reached bottom," Guntermann said. "A leveling out of the foreclosure RSI (Repeat Sales Index) would reflect both the substantial decline in prices that has occurred over the past two years and increased demand from first-time buyers and investors for those homes."

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