This Is What's Happening In East Valley Real Estate

The data is in for the third quarter of 2009, and we are seeing some promising numbers when it comes to Queen Creek Arizona real estate sales statistics. This is not just important to homeowners in Queen Creek either. The trends that form in outlying communities like Queen Creek and Maricopa will likely be repeated later in the more centralized communities too.

So lust like it was a signal of bad things to come for Chandler real estate when the market started to crumble a few years ago in these outlying communities, now there is a new kind of writing on the wall. Cities like Gilbert, Chandler, Scottsdale and others could see their numbers turn around over the next few quarters just as is now happening in the outlying communities.

Market trends in real estate are cyclical. You have seller’s markets and you have buyer’s markets. If you express these as bell shaped curves, they look like peaks and valleys. It is east to look at the chart above and see that we are at the bottom of one of those valleys in Queen Creek right now.

Just as sure as the market went down, it will again go back up. This is simply history repeating itself again as it always will. So if you are one of those people who have been waiting for the market  to hit bottom and you are sitting on the proverbial fence, it is probably time to think about jumping off of said fence and investing in local real estate.

Economists speculated that when the market finally did hit bottom, we would bounce off of that bottom for a while. And as home values have continued to drop, home owners in Chandler have been wondering: “when will we hit that bottom?” I myself own Chandler real estate, so no wonder I take such specific interest in Chandler real estate stats.

Foreclosures are still killing us here. When a bank enters into a short sale, it often results in a house being sold at a reduced price. Sure, these houses often need a lot of work since often times fixtures and appliances have been removed and the house has been trashed. In some cases buyers even have to replace entire mechanical systems such as air conditioning units.

But despite how much more money the buyers put into these homes after they buy them, they still got the house a little bit below market value. And that drives down the average market value for all of us who own homes in Chandler. But as banks become less willing to sell houses below market value, we might be seeing the light at the end of this tunnel.

Home values for Chandler did start to go up in May. And they continued to rise for two months. But then we dropped again during July. Then last month in August, prices started to rise again. Could we be bouncing off of the bottom the way that these economists predicted we would?  We all hope so!

SB 1271, which has not really gotten the press it deserves, was a well meant bill designed to help small Arizona banks that didn’t get any of the free government money that got tossed about as TARP funds. Unfortunately there are consequences that would seriously hurt owners of Arizona real estate who are already struggling.

So after seeing the big picture our legislators are seeking to repeal the new law. To do so they have added the repeal to HB 2008, a bill which just passed the Arizona senate. Of course HB 2008 is the budget bill (yes, Arizona is still operating without a budget). And this budget bill is missing one thing that is very important to Governor Jan Brewer.

You see, instead of having a state government that spends money wisely, our Governor wants to raise taxes. This raise in taxes, as always, would be a “temporary” one. And our Governor insists that Arizona voters want to have their taxes raised again. What? Really?

So since this budget bill contains no raise in taxes the writing is on the wall: Jan Brewer will likely veto this bill. That means Arizona will continue to operate without a budget. It also means that SB 1271 will survive. It kind of makes you wonder, who does Governor Jan Brewer work for?

It seems like every time our government goes about handing out free money for one thing or another there will inevitably be people who will abuse the program in order to get their hands on some of this free money. Why would we think that the federal Homebuyer Tax Credit would be any different?

The tax credit is for first time homebuyers or people who have not owned a home within the past three years. The amount of the credit is up to $8000. And the property must be purchased between January 1^st, 2009 and November 30^th, 2009. The credit is claimed on the buyer’s income tax return to reduce their income tax liability. Any overage will then be returned to the purchaser as any other tax refund: a check from Uncle Sam.

But the IRS announced last week that they have convicted one tax preparer of fraud for falsely claiming the credit on behalf a client of theirs who was not eligible for it. Furthermore, to date the IRS is investigating at least 24 other individuals for fraud as it relates to the Homebuyer Tax Credit. This just further reinforces that home buyers need to rely on the advice of tax professionals as it would be out of the area of expertise that your Arizona real estate professional provides.