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Fun with Sewer Lines

January 29, 2009

Up bright and early this morning for a home inspection, termite inspection, and a sewer line inspection, complete with fancy take-home video.  It’s an older Central Tucson home, built in the early 1920s, in the West University neighborhood.

Around here, it is fairly common that a lot has a house and guest house, and potentially the lot has also been split off into two adjacent parcels.  Like so:

This can lead to some fun situations.  Like, say, when a massive tree on neighboring property has crushed a sewer line on the next door property, and the sewer line runs under the adjacent property.  With no easement.  And around here, the homeowner is responsible for their sewer line out to the connection to the main.

Makes it a little difficult to repair…

Central Tucson is always full of surprises.  So much of the work was done so long ago, when permits were "optional" and planning non-existent. 

So we can deal with that.  Once you know the problem, you can usually figure it out.  The point is to know what to look for, what conditions should be setting off red flags.

In this case, an old lot split and utilities in the former alley way.  And a massive tree right on the fence line.

Challenging your Pima County Assessed Value to Lower Property Taxes

January 22, 2009

Question from the audience: How do you get property taxes re-assessed when you buy a foreclosed fixer-upper?

Answer: Any owner can challenge their property valuation, foreclosed fixer or not.  Please be aware that the Pima County Assessor doesn’t set tax rates, they merely determine the value on which your house is taxed.  At the assessor’s office, you can appeal, or challenge their listed value for your property.

In fact, the Pima County Assessor site has a section on how to go through the appeal process. 

Read through it carefully – if you miss a deadline, you’ll miss your chance to appeal.  You’ll need to prove that something is wrong with your valuation, such as:

• the property record is incorrect, such as listing the wrong square footage
• the full cash value is too high when compared to similar properties in your neighborhood that have sold at arms-length transactions

Because the assessor can use the last 3 years worth of sales, your assessed value is probably still going up – or at least mine did.  I’d love to hear from anyone who has gone through the appeals process here in Tucson – how long did it take, what was the outcome?

Tucson Market Statistics and Report – December 2008

January 20, 2009

The Overview via Podcast:

Download Tucson Market Stats for December 2008 here (MP3) or subscribe to the Tucson Market Reports podcast here.

The Quick Numbers:

• Single Family Home Average Sales Price: $214,563
• Single Family Home Median Sales Price: $176,000
• Single Family Home Units Sold: 577
• Single Family Home Months of Inventory: 10.5 months

• Townhouse Average Sales Price: $171,622
• Townhouse Median Sales Price: $155,000
• Townhouse Units Sold: 55
• Townhouse Months of Inventory: 11.0 months

• Condo Average Sales Price: $120,197
• Condo Median Sales Price: $114,087
• Condo Units Sold: 28
• Condo Months of Inventory: 15.3 months

• Citywide Average Sales Price: $206,981
• Citywide Median Sales Price: $170,500
• Citywide Units Sold: 660
• Citywide Months of Inventory: 10.8 months

Good news and bad news for December’s real estate market in Tucson. Good things: We’ve got the fewest number of listings seen since January 2006. Sales are up 20% over last month, and in some of the hardest hit areas of town, sales finally are ticking up a bit, bringing overall months of inventory levels into more reasonable ranges. On the not so great side: the average and median sales prices in Tucson took a huge hit in December, and the upper end of the market is showing signs of tanking faster than before.

Citywide, the average single family home was $214,563 – if you look at single family homes, townhomes, and condos combined, the average price citywide was $206,981, with a median of $170,500. There were 660 sales in December and 7106 listings, giving Tucson 10.8 months of inventory.

Months of inventory gives you an idea of how well supply and demand are balanced – or how far they’re out of balance. It was interesting that our hardest hit foreclosure areas along the Southern band of Tucson all had more sales in December than in November, recording months of inventory figures between roughly 7.5 and 9 months.

Contrast that to our luxury home market areas – largely the North and the Northeast, where prices are tumbling quickly and months of inventory are both in the high teens. When the average home list price in North Tucson is $901,130 and the average sale price for a home in the same area is $425,843, you know there’s a problem.

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

Extreme Makeover Tucson

January 16, 2009

The ABC TV show Extreme Makeover Home Edition is coming to Tucson!  I’m told they’ve picked the family, but haven’t told them yet.  The team is being led by John Wesley Miller, a local builder.  You can volunteer to help, over at the Extreme Makeover Tucson web site – looks like they’re looking for help on January 27th through February 4th. 

If you don’t want to volunteer, there’s also a spectator area that you can watch the crew and the house progress, open from 8am to 8pm.  I wonder where the house is going to be…

Home Sales Down in the Tucson Luxury Market?

January 15, 2009

Question from the audience – rephrased: How are sales doing in the higher end price ranges?  Specifically in the $700k range?

Answer: Not so hot.  The chart below explains.  That’s the number of sales over 2007 and 2008, in the $600k-$700k range, and the $700k-$800k range.

 

Generally, sales are down in those price ranges, year over year.  I was running my stats for December last night, and sales are up over last month, months of inventory are down in several areas – but not really in the upscale parts of town.  The North and the Northeast both – typically the highest priced areas – are suffering.  The luxury market is over-saturated.  Combine that with decreased sales, and you’ve got a problem: high months of inventory, rapidly decreasing average sale prices.

Dealing with Kneejerk

January 14, 2009

So I submitted a low offer yesterday.

Well, let me rephrase.  I submitted a reasonable opening offer on an overpriced house yesterday.  When the same house is under contract 2 streets over at $80,000 less…

Within about 4 hours, I had a rather terse call from the listing agent, saying his clients were not going to respond to our offer.  But they had another day and a half to consider it.  Why not sleep on it, get over that initial emotional kneejerk response, and at least counter with something?  I know our offer wasn’t what they were hoping for.  But they ain’t going to get what they were hoping for.  And when that house 2 streets over closes for $80k less, they’re going to be hurting, and our offer is going to start looking better.  But we’ll already be gone.

Now, if they’d gotten over that first emotional horror when confronted with the reality of the market via our offer, we might still be talking.  And when there’s no other buyers on the table and a 48 hour acceptance window, there’s usually time to turn it all over in your head, time to step back and think rationally.  Why answer in 4 hours?

Oh well.  We can find other houses in this market, no problem.  Sorry, home seller.

Will Higher Loan Costs Hit Today?

January 12, 2009

News on the mortgage front from people I trust – Fannie Mae’s new fee structure is about to work its way through the system, and some have predicted your rate and closing costs will be higher starting today. 

Remember, it’s for Fannie Mae backed loans only – no FHA or VA, jumbo, or niche/portfolio loans.

So what’s this increased costs all about?  Dan Green of The Mortgage Reports explains further here.

In a nutshell, Fannie Mae introduced risk-based pricing and it is about to come into effect.  If they think you’re a bigger risk, you have to pay more to get the loan.  More or less.  So if you’re looking at a lender’s published rates, they may or may not apply to you because the lender now has to assess your risk level and adjust pricing for Fannie Mae loans. 

Might be a good time to call your lender and check those rates and fees if you’re looking to buy a home and have a pre-approval in hand.

You Play Home Buyer – Which Do You Pick?

January 9, 2009

I was showing a couple homes to one of my buyer clients the other day, sort of a study in opposites.

One was a one-owner home from 1960 – with original everything: kitchen, flooring, bathrooms, light fixtures, wall paper, everything.  But it has a nice floorplan, with excellent potential, and the neighborhood is one of my favorites, tucked away from traffic but close to everything with a stable population and low turnover.

The other was a fix-n-flip from 1950, a little bit smaller, a little bit more expensive, but remodeled from top to bottom.  Not quite as stable of a neighborhood, but decent.

Both have nice lots.  House #1 has a 1 car carport, house #2 has a 1 car garage.  Both have central A/C.

The first house needs work, but it’s a little bigger.  We’d want the foundation checked by a professional – there’s some cracking inside, and I’m not a structural engineer so I can’t say if those cracks are just typical settling on an older house or something to be worried about.

The second house has some very nice aspects, but some of the work was done quickly, not quite finished to perfection.  And you always wonder on those, what signs of trouble have been patched and fixed and painted in the process of fixing and flipping?  What signs of issues are gone that we would have seen if everything hadn’t just been renewed?

So which do you pick?  And why?

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

January 7, 2009

The emails have started increasing already, fielding requests for rental homes for February.  And while my company doesn’t deal in rentals at all (try Bidegain Realty or Tucson Realty and Trust), the increased inquiries can only mean one thing.

It’s time for the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.

Okay, so it doesn’t happen until mid February, but typically, this city is filled to capacity during late January and early February.  If you’re making a trip to Tucson during those months, you need to reserve a hotel room and a rental car NOW.  Because some years, there is nary one to be found during the height of the Gem and Mineral Show.

Also – if you’re driving in for the show, be aware the main exits for downtown are closed as I-10 is still under a major construction project in that area.  Exits are closed from 29th to Prince – plan accordingly.

By Request – Important Features of an Arizona Home

January 5, 2009

Request via email:

I would love to see a blog entry or entries on the theme of "here are some features you should look for in an Arizona home, and here’s why they’re important.". Maybe the opposite too, things to avoid? For example, is a pool good or bad? How important is a covered area near a patio? I’d just be very interested in hearing from a native and a realtor about the features they’d personally value in a home.

Speaking for Southern Arizona and Tucson – weather is an issue.  It’s hot here.  Most people would consider a covered patio essential, and covered parking is a plus.  Think about the position of the house and windows and patio in relation to the sun.  Will the patio be shaded morning or night?  If it is on the Southern side, it may be mostly sunny, even under the cover, most of the day.  We tend to live outdoors a lot – will there be shade to sit in?

Same thoughts go for windows.  Is the sun going to be streaming into the rooms you’ll spend the most time in?  If the windows are newer, good quality, then that’s not a huge deal but with an older home with poor insulation and old single pane glass windows, those rooms are going to be warmer than the rest of the house, and you’ll be turning down that A/C to stay comfortable.

And speaking of the A/C – you’re looking for appropriately sized units, with a decent SEER rating.  Newly installed systems have to be 13 SEER or better now, but many older homes have far less efficient units, which can be more costly to run.

Pools – most people seem to love or hate them.  There’s a few that don’t really care either way, but by and large, people either MUST have a pool, or absolutely hate them.  Unless we’re talking luxury or vacation type housing, I could go either way on pools.

The advice also depends on the type of housing.  If you’re looking for a large parcel, and want a fenced landscaped yard area, be aware you’ll probably get lots of critters into your fenced yard unless you’ve got a solid block wall around that yard.  That may not be as much as a problem with a smaller lot in a well-developed area.

Tucson also has termites – the saying around here is you either have them or you’ll get them eventually.  It’s important to understand what kind of conditions encourage termites, and fix those things quickly – wood to earth contact, water draining towards the foundation, plants close to the foundation, landscape rock piled too high at the foundation.

Other than those things, it’s mostly a style decision, and we have a wide variety of styles.  Personally, I want light but not too much direct sun.  I want a large shady patio.  I want efficient A/C and covered parking and a sound structure that doesn’t encourage termites with a solid fenced yard.

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