Thanksgiving and Whatnot
November 26, 2008
Taking a few days off from the blog to spend Thanksgiving with friends and family. If you need me, I’m always an email or phone call away, but you’ll not find anything new here until next week. Enjoy the holiday!
Lender Owned Homes in Tucson
November 25, 2008
Been out showing a lot of homes recently - here’s a gem from a near half million dollar listing, lender-owned. Buyers tend to be surprised that lenders try to sell homes here in Tucson in such sad states of filth, neglect, and disrepair - at least until I take them into their 3rd or 4th lender owned property and they realize they’re nearly all filthy and in bad condition.
However, sometimes you can get these lender owned homes at fairly sweet prices. Just be prepared - it’s gonna take some work to get the home into shape. "Move in ready" and "Lender Owned" rarely, if ever, go together.
Quality Takes Time
November 24, 2008
I got a call from an Asset Manager the other day, someone that manages the selling off of bank-owned property for the bank or investor. Apparently, an investor had specifically requested that I list his foreclosed home, but it’s not an asset management company I usually work with, so the manager had to call and find me and get me integrated into their system.
I was sent over a bunch of documents late Friday afternoon - a listing agreement and a request for a price opinion, which involves photographs and market analysis and whatnot. And I’m supposed to get the keys from the previous listing agent, head out there to look at the property, do my analysis, submit it all, and have it listed and on the market by tomorrow.
I tell ya, it’s not gonna happen. For several reasons.
One being that the listing agreement is for 3 months and is already filled out for the last price that the house failed to sell at. 3 months in this market? During the slowest period of the year? Over the holidays? And at the same price? No.
And then to have it cleaned up, professionally photographed, and completely researched in 2 days? With the utilities turned back on? Make that, the 2 days before Thanksgiving? I guess I could half-ass it like the last guy did, go take 3 photos, slap them up twice in MLS and write a 2 sentence description about how the property is AS IS and WILL SELL FAST. Because that approach seemed to work well last time…
So I’ll be heading out there today to look over the property, see what it needs, what it looks like, so that I can reasonably pull comparable sales and price the place. And then me and that asset manager are going to have to have a little talk. If that investor specifically requested me, one would assume he has some faith in my expertise. We’ll see, eh?
El Tour de Tucson 2008
November 21, 2008
This Saturday, November 22nd, is the 26th Annual El Tour de Tucson. I’m not an avid cyclist, myself, but the event draws somewhere around 9000 cyclists to Tucson to participate in rides from the 1/4 mile Kids Fun Ride to the 109 mile full Tour of Tucson.
There are maps of the El Tour de Tucson route here - even if you don’t go out and watch or participate, understand there’ll be some road closures and limitations for this event!
My Phoenix buddy Steve Belt is participating this year. If you see him whooshing by, wave hello!
FHA Loan Limits Changing in Tucson
November 19, 2008
FHA loans are becoming much more popular due to the low down payment amount needed when purchasing a home - in the 3-3.5% range, plus a one time fee which brings the down payment to under 5% - but loan limits are going back down in 2009.
Right now, you can buy a home with an FHA loan and finance up to $316,250, which covers a huge portion of the homes for sale in Tucson. However, starting in 2009, loan limits go back down to $271,050. That means anyone looking to buy a home with an FHA loan is looking in the $275k range and less.
The Daily Mortgage Report genius Dan Green covers it here.
Curious as to how many homes are available to those FHA home buyers in Tucson under $275k? Wonder no more. I have charts. Lots and lots of charts. Like this one:
You can also see this chart on the Stats page, from which you can explore the price distributions for each part of Tucson.
Assessed Value and Market Value in Tucson
November 18, 2008
Question: Why is the assessed value of this home $199,000 and the list price is $260,000?
Answer: Because the assessor’s valuation of the home - in reality - has nothing to do with market value in Tucson. The Pima County Assessor determines a ‘value’ for your home (another description of how they determine value here), but they use a mass appraisal system using the last 3-4 years worth of sales, and they end up at a figure which is usually completely unrelated to the dollar amount that someone would be willing to pay for it on the open market today. In theory, they’re related. In actuality, they usually aren’t even close. It could be much higher or much lower than market value. Because sales of homes in Tucson don’t automatically trigger the tax man to re-evaluate the value of your property, assessed value and market value rarely relate to each other.
Spotting Additions in Tucson Homes
November 17, 2008
I do quite a bit of business that involves older homes here in Tucson, be it a 1950’s brick ranch in Central or a 1970’s remodel up in the Catalina Foothills. It seems that more often than not in these homes, there have been additions or enclosures to add to the livable square footage of the house. Frequently, they’re easy to spot because of an awkward room plan, but every once in a while you run into a home addition that was done so well that it’s not obvious the room wasn’t there originally.
Here’s what to look for:
- Seams in the brick or block wall exterior, especially at the front of the house where a carport opening may once have been
- A change in building materials: from brick to siding, for example.
- A change in height between rooms, especially at the back or side of the house, where originally there may have been a step between carport and house, or between patio and house.
- A lack of ducting, or only window A/C.
- Changes in wall thickness at doorways. Double red brick houses have exterior walls that are as thick as the long side of a brick. If the doorway to a room is twice as thick as the other interior walls, you’re probably walking into an addition.
- Sloping ceilings. Patio roofs are usually sloped - chances are, you’ll see a gentle slope on the inside finished ceiling if a patio has been converted into indoor space.
- Changes in wall texture. If the rest of the house is more of a plaster-like texture and one area has a knock-down texture, then something happened.
Rancho Sahuarita Price per Square Foot
November 15, 2008
Heading down to Rancho Sahuarita today to check out some homes for sale in the area. Rancho Sahuarita is an interesting community, it’s all designed to get people out of their homes and into the neighborhood. Typically, the lots are on the small side; there are some exceptions scattered throughout, but the community amenities are fairly spectacular. There’s a lake, for crying out loud. A water park, a big rec center, trails and playgrounds scattered about. And the HOA fee is somewhere around $56/month for all of that.
So what are house prices doing in Rancho Sahuarita? Pretty much what you’d expect in this market. This is the price per square foot of homes in Rancho Sahuarita since the start of 2005.
I was down at Rancho Sahuarita a couple weeks ago, and was pleased to see the decent amount of retail that has moved into the area. Back when the community first started, it was rather out in the middle of no where. It’s good to see the community growing and taking shape.
Tucson Real Estate Market Report and Statistics - October 2008
November 13, 2008
The Overview via Podcast:
Download Tucson Market Stats for September 2008 here (MP3) or subscribe to the Tucson Market Reports podcast here.
The Quick Numbers:
- Single Family Home Average Sales Price: $250,318
- Single Family Home Median Sales Price: $190,500
- Single Family Home Units Sold: 616
- Single Family Home Months of Inventory: 10.1 months
- Townhouse Average Sales Price: $164,626
- Townhouse Median Sales Price: $148,450
- Townhouse Units Sold: 50
- Townhouse Months of Inventory: 13.0 months
- Condo Average Sales Price: $114,971
- Condo Median Sales Price: $125,000
- Condo Units Sold: 31
- Condo Months of Inventory: 14.6 months
- Citywide Average Sales Price: $238,151
- Citywide Median Sales Price: $185,000
- Citywide Units Sold: 697
- Citywide Months of Inventory: 10.5 months
Buyers continue to follow the bargains - the South and Southwest sides of Tucson keep posting relatively low months of inventory figures, at least compared to the rest of the city, as home prices side in those areas and the housing becomes more attractive. Lots of newer construction there that can be picked up for $150,000 or less.
Citywide, we’re entering our seasonal slowdown: sales were down to just under 700 units, pendings were down a bit, and active listings were up about 50 units, which all combine to make our months of inventory pop up to just over 10 months. Usually, our sales taper off in winter months, and start to gain momentum again somewhere around March.
The median price of a home didn’t move off of last month, at $185,000, and the average sales price ticked up fractionally to $238,000 and change.
The Southeast had a rough month this October, posting only 2/3rds of the usual sales, and the average sales price dipped below $200k for the first time in about 3 years or so. Be an interesting area to keep an eye on - if prices come down a little more there, it could be a pretty attractive alternative to the Southwest and Northwest sides.
As always, there are extensive charts and statistics and whatnot, broken down by area and type of housing, over at Statistics.Housechick.com. The market in this city varies widely from one end to the other, so you can check out what’s going on in your area over at that section of my site.
Data gathered from the Tucson MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Figures quoted here include only single family homes, townhomes, and condos in the 9 areas that make up the Greater Tucson Area: NW, N, NE, W, C, E, SW, S, and SE.
tags: market reports, market statistics, tucson, tucson real estate
The Tucson Land Market
November 5, 2008
Been looking around the land market recently here in Tucson, and was curious as to how many lots were selling compared to homes, if prices were dipping. Here’s what I found, in fancy chart form, because who doesn’t love a good graph?
Average and Median Lot prices in Tucson since 2000
Number of Lots Sold in Tucson since 2000
- About Tucson (29)
- Bank Owned Homes (3)
- Canadians and Tucson (2)
- First Time Buyer (21)
- Home Buying (76)
- Home Selling (50)
- Homeowner Associations (5)
- Loans and Financing (24)
- Market Discussion (5)
- Market Reports (30)
- Odds and Ends (53)
- Purchase Contract (1)
- Relocating (7)
- Repair Renovate Maintain (15)
- Restaurants (13)
- Top Ten (2)
- Tucson Events (21)
- Tucson Homes Explained (19)
- Tucson Land (5)
- Tucson Neighborhoods (19)
