Phoenix From the outside many of these communities in and around Phoenix still look normal and nice as you drive by.  It is only when you slow down and look more closely at house after house that you notice even in the desert how many are overgrown with tumbleweed coming in, paint starting to chip, and the telltale symptoms of abandonment everywhere.

Estimates in the greater Phoenix area are for 3500 foreclosures this month and more still coming.  More than half of the mortgages are underwater.

Modifications are mirages in the desert.  They look like they are coming just ahead, but then when you get closer too often they disappear.  The “business model” for Arizona Advocates & Actions focused on high front end payments to allow aggressive foreclosure resistance until modifications were achieved on fair terms.  Talking to the members, the problem is that months turn into years and require constant servicing which competes with recruitment of new members, similar to the problems that local unions face.

The Obama Administration still seems to have no clue how deep the wounds are in beleaguered communities that have gone from bloom and boom to bust and disgust, but the signs are everywhere as we went neighborhood by neighborhood in Phoenix and the surrounding cities.