November 24, 2009 at 12:20 pm
· Filed under real estate ·Tagged Chandler real estate, Chandler real estate market trends, Home prices
Today the AP (Associated Press) reported that home prices went up slightly in September. This is a good sign that the national real estate slump as a whole is reflective of what is happening with east valley real estate. It’s a trend I pointed out a month ago right here on this blog site.
Obviously my primary focus is on the Chandler real estate market and the east valley as a whole. But when you look at the big picture, home prices are a driving force behind rebuilding our troubled national economy. It is not a well guarded secret that the foreclosure crises which has decimated home values across the nation was the leading cause of the recession we are in right now.
But let’s celebrate too much just yet. Home prices typically go up during the traditional home shopping season. And that traditional home shopping season just came to an end. This could stall recent gains in both sales and prices nationally, but it should not affect us here in the east valley too much. At least that’s my take on the situation because I take a special interest in Chandler real estate market trends. Let’s hope things keep going like they have been going here!
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October 5, 2009 at 1:45 pm
· Filed under 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.
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September 3, 2009 at 9:32 am
· Filed under 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!
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August 19, 2009 at 8:47 am
· Filed under real estate
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?
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August 11, 2009 at 8:11 am
· Filed under real estate
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 1st, 2009 and November 30th, 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.
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August 3, 2009 at 10:38 am
· Filed under real estate ·Tagged Arizona real estate, SB 1271
SB 1271 has been getting a lot of press lately – as it should. It is a law that kind of snuck in under the radar during the last legislative session that would have serious consequences for some Arizona real estate owners facing foreclosure. These consequences were not realized by the state senate when the bill passed because the banking industry lobbyists were pushing a different agenda.
But now in light of the serious consequences that this new law presents, even the original sponsor of the bill, Republican Senator Steve Pierce has realized that perhaps this was not such a good idea after all. In fact, the Senator asked the legislature and Governor Jan Brewer for an immediate repeal of the law which is slated to go into effect in September.
Currently part of a new House Bill (HB 2008) is the repeal of SB 1271. This new bill quickly passed the House Appropriations Committee. Of course this isn’t the only thing that the legislature has on its plate right now. We don’t even have an approved state budget yet and the Governor is calling for a “temporary” tax increase to make up for the budget shortfall of 3.8 billion dollars! Stay tuned for more updates on HB 2008 and SB 1271…
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July 27, 2009 at 1:32 pm
· Filed under real estate ·Tagged Associated Press, Chandler real estate, Chandler real estate stats
Citing several factors including bargain prices, low interest rates and the federal tax credit for home buyers, the Associated Press is reporting that June new home sales rose 11%. That is the fastest increase since December of 2000 more than eight years ago. It is a great sign that the housing market is starting to bounce back. And while these are national statistics, Chandler real estate stats show that we have experienced a large jump in sales too.
But this doesn’t mean that home prices are rising across the board. In fact in many areas home prices continue to fall. Unfortunately this is also the case with the Chandler real estate market. And construction levels are also still weak because home builders still have an abundance of inventory that is just sitting there empty.
Nonetheless, the fact that people are buying houses is a good sign for the economy. And this increase even outpaced what top economists had been predicting. The market is indeed turning. So this would be a good time for people who have been sitting on the proverbial fence regarding the purchase of a home to recognize a few things:
- Interest rates won’t stay this low forever
- Prices will start to go back up
- The tax credit ends November 30th
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July 23, 2009 at 9:19 am
· Filed under real estate ·Tagged anti-deficiency, Arizona real estate, SB1271
Background: SB 1271 started out as a jail district and property tax limits bill. But in a strike everything amendment to the bill it turned into an anti-deficiency bill that would benefit the banks. Based on the testimony given at the hearing on June 10th the changes to A.R.S. §33-814(G) seemed reasonable and it passed. But after further research this change will have far reaching legal and practical impacts.
Cause: One of the problems Arizonans facing foreclosure have is the very short timeline involved. We have one of the shortest in the nation – only 90 days from default. And now we are going to let banks chase defaulting borrowers for recovery above and beyond that which is recouped when the bank sells off the foreclosed house.
Effect: So suddenly the banks no longer have any incentive whatsoever to work with a borrower to resolve delinquencies. Now the bank can quickly foreclose, sell the house below market value and then go after the defaulting owner for the difference! This will in turn drive down Arizona real estate prices even further. Perpetuating falling real estate prices will only worsen our struggling economy. Furthermore, the relationship between the lender’s rights and the borrower’s rights will be seriously imbalanced by this change to the current law. The only winners here will be the banks who got us into this financial mess in the first place.
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July 19, 2009 at 3:04 pm
· Filed under real estate ·Tagged Arizona real estate, SB 1271
One of the problems that politicians face is that after all of their legislative bickering they are forced to suddenly make a bunch of decisions at the last possible minute. And this was the case in Arizona at the end of our fiscal year last month. Of course the one that made the most news was our governor and her refusal to sign what was essentially her own budget. But there were other things being pushed through that you probably didn’t hear about.
SB 1271 started out as a jail district and property tax limits bill. But in a common political move they did what is called a “strike everything” amendment to the bill. What started out as a bill to benefit home owners and Arizona real estate investors got gutted by the banking special interest groups. And because Arizona banks have lost millions of dollars due to foreclosures our representatives were easily swayed into passing a bill that would help the banks.
The way I read the bill gives me this impression: Property investors will be liable for their debts but homeowners will still get deficiency protection if they lived in the home for six consecutive months. But I am not a lawyer. And the only way to interpret this new law is to see what happens when it is applied and challenged in the courts after it goes into effect in September. The only thing that remains unchanged when it comes to anti-deficiency is that those of us who are professional Realtors should advise our clients to consult legal counsel if anti-deficiency questions arise.
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July 16, 2009 at 2:21 pm
· Filed under real estate ·Tagged East valley real estate, KTKV
On this morning’s news there was an interesting report about the local real estate market. It contained some really good news. But as we have become accustomed to there was some bad news too. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
Foreclosures remain a huge problem in Arizona. And depending on which numbers you look at, we are only slightly behind Nevada and California when it comes to the number of homes foreclosed upon. This isn’t one of those categories that we want to be trailblazers in! This is one of the driving forces behind the east valley real estate crisis. But this is not something new.
So now let’s get to the good news. According to the report on KTVK, Arizona State University just completed a study that shows the valley real estate market bottomed out in May. That only further confirms what I reported at the beginning of July! When I finished compiling my quarterly market reports for the east valley for the second quarter 2009, I reported that we were at the bottom of this so called bell shaped curve. Prices have gone about as low as they are going to go. In fact, they appear to be starting to rise. That’s great news for homeowners. It is also a sign that you should pay attention to if you are sitting on the proverbial fence when it comes to buying a home.
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