Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/5/2010 (3792 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MAYOR Sam Katz is in the process of selling a Phoenix-area home once slated to be auctioned off after his mortgage holder tried to foreclose on it.

In 2004, Katz and his ex-wife bought a five-bedroom home in the affluent Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale for US$837,500, according to Maricopa County assessment records. The home in the gated community of Stonegate has three bathrooms, three gas fireplaces, a pool, a jetted tub and a three-car garage, according to online real-estate listings.

But it lost 34 per cent of its value since 2004 and was put on the market for US$550,000, according to county assessment records and online listings.

Financial institution Wachovia Mortgage attempted to foreclose on the property late last year, when the property's trustee issued two notices that it would be sold to the highest bidder at a public auction in Phoenix, Maricopa County court records show. But the public auctions were cancelled.

The original loan on the property was $749,000, the records show. That means Winnipeg's mayor found himself in the same boat as the vast majority of Phoenix-area homeowners -- saddled with a steep decline in property values as well as a mortgage.

According to Maricopa County records, the house was assessed at $729,000 in 2009, but the full cash value was reassessed at $588,100 this year. Next year, the projected value will be $554,000, the records show.

The 3,800-square-foot property, built in 1992, was at one point listed on buyphoenixforeclosure.com. Auction notices were issued and cancelled in November and December 2009, according to Maricopa Country court records.

Foreclosure is a process that allows the holder of a mortgage to take control of a property when the owner falls behind in their mortgage payments.

The records also show Katz received a deed of release in February 2010, which means there were no longer any claims against the property. Online listings state a sale of the home is pending but do not list the new owner or the sale price.

Katz declined an interview request to discuss his former property.

The mayor's primary residence is a home in south Tuxedo.

The collapse of the U.S. housing bubble led property values to decline up to 58 per cent in some Phoenix-area neighbourhoods between the peak of the Arizona market in 2006 and April 2010, the Arizona Republic reported earlier this month.

Thousands of Arizona residents have walked away from their homes since the U.S. recession worsened in 2008, as their outstanding mortgage balances suddenly exceeded the value of their homes.

Across the United States, the housing collapse left 10.7 million families owing more than their homes are worth, the New York Times reported in January.

Foreclosure sales in the once-booming Phoenix metropolitan area remain common. Billboards along freeways advertise cheap real estate for prospective home-buyers -- while banners on apartment buildings advertise cheap rent, presumably to people who were forced to walk away from their properties or chose to do so.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of Winnipeg residents, meanwhile, have taken advantage of the misery-induced bargains in the Phoenix area, according to real estate agents.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca