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Did the Arizona Daily Star Just Declare Bottom?

December 29, 2008

Wow.  I think the local newspaper just declared bottom, in a round-about way.  Bold move?  Not the typical spin, anyway.  Read it here.  http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/273542 (It’ll hide behind a free registration in a week.)

Getting Help

December 14, 2008

One of my clients just sent me an address of a property that looked interesting.  I did a little research, and discovered it is a bank-owned home, looks like a light fix-up, in a decent Central neighborhood.

I looked at the history of the home, and the owner didn’t try to sell it before the foreclosure.  It looks like they just let it go.

The thing is, they had two mortgages on it - fairly small ones, actually.  The first lien could easily have been satisfied at a sale, the second one would have been partially covered.  Did the owner just give up?

It’s not the first time I’ve seen that.  In fact, a friend of mine recently lost her home to foreclosure.  I had no idea she was even in trouble, she didn’t try to sell it, didn’t try to renegotiate, didn’t talk to anyone about it, nothing.  Just, poof, one day she moved out and the house was the bank’s. 

Look - poo happens.  But you don’t have to take it lying down.  You do, however, have to talk to people and figure out your options - talk to your lender, talk to your agent, go talk to the free county housing resource folks.  There’s help out there, but you can’t go get it unless you tell someone you’ve got a problem.

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.

Housing Bail Out Shot Down

September 29, 2008

In case you weren’t glued to the various news sources, the housing "bail-out" bill was shot down by the House today.  Lots of finger-pointing, wild speculation, and general insanity afoot. 

 

Arizona House Representative Raul Grijalva issued a statement on his no vote

 

I’ll update this post with links reactions and predictions, just as soon as some dust settles and I can find a few cohesive, well-argued stories.  Anyone else want to contribute an opinion or story of value, comments are open, below.

Peeking at August Stats

September 4, 2008

I pulled my active listing related figures yesterday from the Tucson MLS system - I’ll pull the solds over the weekend, just to give some of those slacker agents a little more time to finish reporting their sales for August.

So far, number of listings and pendings are down, and based on today’s number of sales figure, months of inventory is holding steady from last month.

I was talking to a couple of folks earlier in the week about the market in general.  Looking back at this year, I’ve had several clients in multiple competing offer situations, both as sellers and buyers.  While there are lots of homes that are overpriced or in bad condition and sit on the market forever, every once in a while, a real gem shows up, and you’ve got to fight for it if you want it. 

Coming soon: I’ve added some new metrics and charts to the Tucson market stats that I collect, including a graph of list and sale price distributions per area.  They’re not up in the regular stats pages yet, but I’m hoping that in the next 2 weeks or so (knock on wood), we’ll have a large site update rolled out and the stats will be consolidated into their own area.

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