by Calculated Risk on 3/21/2010 01:09:00 AM

This is an article describing the changing dynamics in the Phoenix housing market ...

From Craig Anderson at the Arizona Republic: Real-estate investors, who once fueled a run-up in home values, now helping stabilize market (ht JG)

For decades to come, participants in the Valley's housing economy are sure to remember 2009 as the Year of the Investor. ... Investors and bank foreclosures helped boost Maricopa County home sales up to 78,899 in 2009, up from 58,454 the previous year, according to The Arizona Republic's analysis of 2009 Valley home-values data from the Information Market, based in Phoenix.

... [Alan] Langston, executive director of the Arizona Real Estate Investors Association, based in Tempe, said a number of recent developments have slowed the rate of lender foreclosure in recent months ...

One factor is the rise in short sales, which have replaced about 25 percent of the foreclosures banks were initiating a year ago, he said. ...

Another recent change is the decision by some lenders to use "drop bids" to sell more properties in default to third-party investors before they become bank-owned, he said.

Before the first half of 2009, it was rare for private parties to buy homes at a trustee's deed sale, a cash-only auction for pre-foreclosed properties that takes place daily at the Maricopa County courthouse.

Drop bids changed all that, Langston said. They are a last-minute decision by the lender to slash a property's auction price. Langston said drop bidding has helped lenders avoid taking possession of even more homes while providing new opportunities for buyers.

These investors are very different from the "investors" (really speculators) in the 2003 - 2006 period. The current investors are paying all cash - and planning on renting the homes until prices increase. Of course this is supply that will come back on the market eventually ...