Today at our office we had a visit from the Maricopa County Assessor, Keith E. Russell.  It was a very good and informative presentation about how real estate taxes work here in the valley and some of the improvements that may happen.

Of particular interest was a discussion about the influence of foreclosures on the valuation model that is used.  Currently these are not used but they sure effect values of competing homes being sold.

The amount of distressed properties sold is very surprising.  These are bit numbers.  What is presented below is a percentage of transactions that were REO or lender owned.  This is a higher amount then that represented on the ARMLS.

Jan. '08	Feb.	March	April	May	June
17%	25%	21%	36%	30%	40%

(% of REO sales compared to total sold)