Understanding Arizona Foreclosure Timeframes
According to Realtytrac.com, in January 2009, the state of Arizona had one foreclosure for every 182 households, making it number three in the nation for foreclosures.
It’s no wonder that Arizona residents are looking for ways to stop Arizona foreclosure now. While you’re making your plans to get help to stop your foreclosure, an important question to ask is “How long does a foreclosure take in Arizona?”
Briefly, foreclosure in Arizona will not begin until a borrower fails to make three or four payments. Mortgage lenders will send a notice of default to a homeowner who, after missing these payments, does not make any attempt to contact the lender to negotiate a way to make up the missed payments. It is at this point that you should begin looking at alternatives to foreclosure, such as loan modification kits. To stop Arizona foreclosure, time is of the essence, so you must work quickly.
In Arizona, you are at a bit of a disadvantage, in that Arizona is a title theory state. That means that your property actually remains in trust until your loan is paid in full. Because of this, foreclosure in Arizona does not happen in a courtroom. Your mortgage lender simply needs to publish notice in the advertising section of a publication local to the homeowner regarding the foreclosure and impending sale. This notice must run for four consecutive weeks to be considered valid, and it does not have to be done in a major publication. In other words, the mortgage lender may choose to publish notice of foreclosure in a smaller region specific publication rather than the daily newspaper for your metropolitan area.
When the formal process is begun, your mortgage lender must also post notice on the property itself within twenty days of the scheduled date of sale. This date of sale must be at least ninety days from the date of publication of the original notice. This sale can be postponed for many reasons, including repayment of arrears, payment of the original note in full, a judicial challenge filed by the borrower, or bankruptcy filed by the borrower.
All in all, the foreclosure process in Arizona can take as little as approximately 120 days. This is a relatively short amount of time to stop Arizona foreclosure when compared to judicial states, which often take six months or more. It is essential that if you become behind on your mortgage loan payments, you contact your lender as soon as possible and make arrangements or at least buy yourself some time to look into other options, such as loan modification kits and short sale. With the current economy, unless you have a tremendous amount of equity in your home, doing a loan modification may be your most inexpensive and quickest option.
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