Monday, April 30, 2012

Buyers and sellers please read

Prices have begun to rise at a fast pace
Housing inventory has dropped steadily during the past year because of a record number of investors snapping up properties out of foreclosure. Home sales are up 35% from a year ago as more regular buyers have joined investors in the mix. "Prices have begun to rise at a fast pace, and bargains are no longer plentiful," said Mike Orr, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory at ASU. "Most homes that are priced well are attracting multiple offers within a couple of days, and many are exceeding the asking price."
Read article - azcentral.com



3 Housing Trends Emerging This Spring
What can home buyers expect to face this selling season? An improving housing market has made it a different picture in many areas compared to recent years. Here are some trends taking shape in the housing market this spring: 1) Fierce competition; 2) More renters show desire to become home owners; and 3) Mortgages may be a little pricier.
Read article - Realtor Magazine

Friday, April 27, 2012

Prices rising

Phoenix-area home prices up 20% in past 12 months
Home prices are surging in metro Phoenix, climbing 8% in March alone and 20% in the past 12 months. The median price of a house in the region climbed to $134,900, according to a report from the W. P. Carey School of Business at ASU. The trend is projected to continue throughout the year, although at a slower pace. Mike Orr, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory at ASU credits the turnaround to steep drops in foreclosures and in the number of homes for sale, coupled with an increase in sales.
Read article - azcentral.com

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Phoenix home values to outpace the nation in 2012 and no more low ball offers

Phoenix home values to outpace the nation in 2012
Phoenix home values are forecasted to experience the largest national gains in 2012. Zillow's report for the first quarter of 2012 predicts Phoenix home appreciation rising 6.5% between March 2012 and March 2013 - the largest growth amongst the 30 major metros included in the report. "In Phoenix, your February-to-March change is 1.4 percent, which is really quite extra ordinary," said Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist. Humphries explains that Phoenix has be experiencing "very fast monthly appreciation," a pattern that has led to the Zillow to forecast this substantial increase in home values in the next year.
Read article - Phoenix Business Journal



Low-ball Offers a Thing of the Past?
According to a NAR survey this March of 4,500 agents and brokers, no REALTORS® complained about low-ball offers. The main problem nowadays: The sudden drop in inventory of for-sale homes has led to fewer homes available to sell. For home buyers who still think they have a chance of hitting it lucky with a low-ball offer, they're finding in many markets that their offers are more often being rejected or countered closer to the original asking price.
Read article - Realtor Magazine

Friday, April 20, 2012

New Home Construction on the rise!

Friday, April 20, 2012



Home construction outside of Phoenix on the rise
Mike Ripson hasn't built a home in three years, but he is about to. He has been sitting on one hundred sixty acres of land just outside Phoenix, Arizona, which he intends to divide into 121 one-acre lots. "Now's the time because we've been studying the marketplace, and we noticed beginning late last summer, early fall, that for homes priced less than $100,000, the market was becoming very tight," says Ripson, whose company is celebrating its ten year anniversary this week. "Over the last several months that price point has increased such that today, homes priced less than 300,000 dollars, there's less than a thirty-day supply in the marketplace," Ripson adds.
Read article - CNBC

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Recovery Underway, but Supply and Demand Out of Balance

Recovery Underway, but Supply and Demand Out of Balance
You could say that Phoenix is a seller's market this spring, although there's very little real estate to buy. Michael Orr of W. P. Carey School of Business, reports that with interest rates low, the economy beginning to stir and prices very affordable compared to salaries and rental rates, a swift recovery could be in the cards. But supply is so tight that "buying a house is often quite a struggle," he said. Supply is down 42%. In fact, the inventory of homes under $250,000 is only a 25 day supply.
Read article - WP Carey


Principal forgiveness on mortgages gains appeal
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could save $1.7 billion if they forgave principal on some distressed mortgages, new analysis shows. The Federal Housing Finance Agency - which regulates the mortgage giants - may decide in the next few weeks about whether to use principal forgiveness as a foreclosure prevention tactic. The FHFA have come under pressure to allow Freddie and Fannie, which own or guarantee 60% of all home loans, to do principal forgiveness.
Read article - USA Today

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON BUYING OR SELLING, PLEASE READ

Tuesday, April 3, 2012



Arizona housing on the mend: Why it's time to sell or buy
A year ago, the crowd at the courthouse was much smaller and so were the auction prices. Tom Ruff of AZBidders calls it classic supply and demand. "We've seen a big decline in distressed inventories," he says. "The start of last year we might have had 60,000 properties either in foreclosure or bank owned. Today we have approximately 23,000." In September of last year, he says we finally hit our bottom. At that time, the average home price per square foot was $79, or $94,800, for a 1,200 square foot home. As of this week, housing per square foot was approximately $91.00, adding $14,400 value to the same home over the past six months.
Read article - KTAR

Monday, April 2, 2012

prices still rising

Phoenix-area home prices headed upward
Home prices are climbing in metro Phoenix faster than they have since the housing boom. Some parts of the region experienced home-value increases of 5 to 10 percent a month this year because of a shortage of homes for sale that is sparking bidding wars between investors and regular buyers armed with pre-approvals for mortgages. This emerging recovery of home prices in the Phoenix area started late last year and has been building each month.
Read article - azcentral.com



Expectations rising for housing market's spring season
The spring home-selling season could be the strongest in years and may foreshadow which markets will lead the housing industry in recovery, economists say. While last year was dismal for existing home sales, this year is looking better. Existing home sales in February were up 9% from the same time a year ago, as was the Pending Home Sale Index, which reflects signed contracts leading to sales, says the National Association of Realtors. Meanwhile, Realtors' confidence in the single-family home market is the highest in four years.
Read article - USAToday