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Cheap foreclosed homes are available in Surprise, Arizona, based on data prepared by Jay Butler, an associate professor of real estate at the Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business.

Because foreclosure homes continue to enter the housing market, the median price for all types of homes, including foreclosed homes, new homes and existing homes, fell to $131,000 in August compared to $170,000 in August last year.

According to Jay Butler, more houses are being sold in August in the West Valley compared to last year and more foreclosures have been accounting for total sales. Out of every 3 previously owned homes sold in the West Valley, one was a foreclosure property.

While the 33-percent share was a decrease from the 44 percent share in August 2008, the share was still much higher than the three- to five-percent share in a normal housing market.

In addition, Butler said that the ratio of foreclosure sales should first go down to about one foreclosed home out of every 20 non-foreclosed home resales before the housing market becomes normal. Also, owner-occupants should be the ones driving activity in the market and not investors looking for cheap foreclosed homes that have strong profit potentials.

In Surprise, out of 510 houses sold in August, 180 units were foreclosed properties, a drop from 200 units sold in August last year. With 230 foreclosures, Glendale again led other cities in the West Valley in total number of foreclosed properties.

In El Mirage, 50 homes were foreclosed in August, pushing down the median home sales price to $73,250, which is far below the median price of $116,000 in August last year.

Based on data from ASU, out of approximately 6,000 existing homes sold in the Valley in August, about 3,100 were foreclosed units. This indicated that around 34 percent of all pre-owned homes sold were foreclosures in August. During the same month last year, out of 4,300 existing homes sold, around 3,300 units were foreclosures, representing 44 percent of total home resales.

However, Butler said that the foreclosure percentage in August is not as accurate as he wants it to be because about 50 percent of conventional home sales were made by banks selling residential properties they have previously repossessed from foreclosure auctions. He therefore contended that about 67 percent of all home sales in August were foreclosures.

According to a real estate research firm, a prospective home buyer can find cheap foreclosed homes in Surprise because there are currently more than 3,500 foreclosure homes in Surprise which are available at an average of $126,530.

Investors looking for cheap land for sale can find plenty of potential investments in idled subdivisions in metro Atlanta as banks that have foreclosed on the projects are now selling them at discounted prices.

Since last year, Georgia has posted the most number of failed banks among states due to the heavy exposure of banks to delinquent residential and commercial development loans.

According to data from Smart Numbers, a real estate research firm based in Marietta, the total number of vacant home lots in failed subdivision projects in metro Atlanta has reached an astounding 150,000 units, which represent the area’s supply for more than 10 years based on current absorption rates.

Steve Palm, president of Smart Numbers, said the median price for vacant lots has sharply fallen to $30,000 this year, compared to $57,000 during the boom in 2007. He added that there are too many vacant lots and too few buyers.

Palm also said that the hardest hit communities are on the outer parts of the region, such as Newton, Jackson and Bartow Counties, where cheap land for sale abounds but no buyers are interested.

One of the many failed subdivisions is the 600-acre WaterLace, a pricey development in Fayette County which was planned to have almost 400 houses. Developer Stephen Macauley went into bankruptcy in 2008, contributing to the failed loans of his lender Security Bank of Macon, which also closed recently due to delinquent mortgage loans. The subdivision, which has only a few finished homes, is now under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Adding to the problems of failed subdivisions is the differences in the investment models among lenders. Many of the housing projects in Atlanta were financed by several lenders that have different strategies in solving their delinquent loans.

While some lenders want to hold on to the properties until the housing market improves, the others want to sell them immediately even at bargain prices. Some lenders have been dumping vacant home lots as low as 30 percent of their original market values.

Synovus, the second biggest bank in Georgia, has been selling its distressed assets at bargain prices, including vacant lots in the metro Atlanta area.

According to Joe Moss of Security Exchange Bank, large banks bailed out by the federal government are able to dispose of cheap land for sale quickly despite big losses because of their size. He said that smaller banks are affected much more sharply because they do not have the ability to take big write-offs.

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Foreclosed homes for sale are being offered to lower-income families in Southern Nevada under a federal program launched in 2008 by President Bush to stabilize neighborhoods and another federal program launched by President Obama this year to stimulate the economy.

The substantial number of Indianapolis foreclosure homes has boosted home affordability in the city and helped put the city on top of a list of the ten most affordable cities to buy a house in the U.S.

Find foreclosures in Honolulu by considering foreclosed condos as the city’s condo market slowed despite sharp reduction in condo prices.

Nearly 70 Chicago foreclosure homes will be auctioned off in a special event this August at the Chicago Marriott Southwest.

More foreclosure houses for sale are expected in the coming months after the expected surge in loan modifications did not happen, according to a report from the Treasury Department.

More Los Angeles foreclosure homes are expected to enter the market as home prices rise, according to real estate analysts in Southern California. They contend that many lenders are holding out for higher prices and that the others are trying to comply first with the federal foreclosure prevention program before pursuing their foreclosures.

The percentage of FHA-guaranteed homes which ultimately went into foreclosure house listings in June increased to 1.76 percent compared to 1.6 percent in June last year. The delinquency rate for FHA home loans also increased, climbing up from 5.57 percent in June last year to 6.88 percent in June this year.

Foreclosure houses in Worcester, Massachusetts are being sold at prices lower than tax assessments made by the city’s tax assessors.