I am hear to say, we of the North West Valley in Phoenix, Glendale and Peoria including the zip codes of 85383, 85308 and 85083, got off pretty light in the winter monster storm of 2010. Many areas of the valley did experience heavy damage but as I drove around this part of the valley this morning, I did not see much for storm damage. Here are a few pictures of what I did find. A few trees down, My Pool with too much water in it, water retention areas filled like mini lakes and to my delight, New River on Happy Valley at the new bridge was filled and flowing with water. A rare but beautiful sight.
What goes up must come down? Well, we have all seen enough of falling prices with the Phoenix market correction over the last 2 years. But here, going down is great news. As we see on this chart active listings are down approximately 10,000 from a year ago. 3000 of that drop in active listings was just last month. We still need less listings for the market to be considered normal, but this is great news to see the number of actively listed home home decreasing at a nice pace. 5% interest rates, 2001 pricing in most areas and a $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers has certainly spurred the sale of homes this year.
Here is the monthly sold numbers for the last year for the MLS including the areas of North Phoenix,Peoria and Glendale. On the far left side of the graph you see March of 2008 in blue and March of 2009 on the right in gray. Gray is now a very lovely color when it represents a huge spike in sales this last month to 7544. A number we have not seen since the market was on fire in Spring of 2006. Click on the graph to see it larger.
I found this great article in the New York Times on the housing rescue plan that President Obama has been working on to stem the wave of foreclosures. I know many of you are wondering if you are a candidate for the refi program that is included in this bill. It covers such things as:
How to find out if your loan qualifies
What the guidelines are
Will I have to pay mortgage insurance if I am not currently doing so?
Some days are better than others and today is a good day. I had 2 clients with home purchases they were waiting to close escrow on. They were both also waiting to lock in their interest rates, desiring something a little better than 5.5%. (I don’t know when 5.5% became a less than desirable rate).
Well today their wait paid off, as they were able to lock in at rates of 5% due to the quick action of the loan officer Linda Hall at First Priority Financial who was closely watching the market for a rally. Being in the right place at the right time and having a good team to get you in the right place is a beautiful thing. It puts a smile on my face. Congratulations Mel, Terry and Christine on securing a great interest rate on your new homes!
Emmy McLeish~providing real estate services for intelligent people in North Phoenix,Peoria and Glendale, Arizona
Another reason to relocate the North Valley of Peoria, Glendale or Phoenix is our amazing sunsets! This sunset was shot just north of Terramar off Jomax Road to the West of 67th Ave. Terramar is a “planned community” or “subdivision” located in North Peoria, 85383. I was on my way to pick up some documents from a client who is buying a home in Terramar, the home they named “The Sunset House” and here you see why. This sunset happened in about 10 minutes with lots of drama and changed very quickly.
Emmy McLeish~providing real estate services for intelligent people in North Phoenix,Peoria and Glendale, Arizona
Someone needs to tell you this! Breaking news you are not seeing in the Arizona Republic Newspaper. I have tracked the market statistics since January of 2006 and here you see an amazing trend. We have not had 11,000 pending and active with contingencies in the last 3 years. NEVER! NOT ONCE! And here we are, only in the beginning of March, when the market is normally just getting going and we are seeing a spike in the number of people writing offers on homes in the entire valley, including my favorite areas of North Phoenix, Peoria and Glendale. The highest number we have had in the last 3 years was in May of 2006 at 10,008. What does this mean? Offers on home have sky rocketed this year from 6400 January 1st to this current number of 11,000. Click on the chart to see larger detail.
Information provide by Emmy McLeish a real estate professional in North Phoenix,Peoria and Glendale, Arizona
I called the Vistancia Village HOA service providers today to find out how much the fees are to transfer the property to a client who is buying a bank owned foreclosure in this beautiful master planned community. Some banks who own these foreclosures will not pay the fees required to transfer the property to the new homeowner. It is better to find out what the fees are in advance, since they change often and vary from community to community. As it turns out they just changed March 1,2009 in Vistancia Village. Here is what I was told today when I called;
Transfer Fee- $105.00 This fee is used to do paperwork and what ever else is required to change the property from one owner to another
Disclosure fee- $190.00 This fee is to provide the new buyer with all the information about the rules and regulations in a community
Working Capital Fee- $246.00 This is a newer fee that not all communities charge. It can be a small fee like this one or a very large fee adding up to 1000’s of dollars.
For more information about the HOA go to www.myvistancia.com From there you can click on the documents tab to read the CC & R’s.
The phone number for the HOA is 623-215-8646
To call and verify the transfer fee yourself (which you should do) 480-921-7500
HUD raised the FHA loan limit in Maricopa County from $271,050 to $346,250 on Feb.25th,2009. This is great news for home buyers who only have 3.5% for a down payment but were looking to purchase a little more expensive home. Many home buyers currently are looking to purchase a home that will suit their needs for a long time instead of investing in an starter home, knowing they may never again be able to take advantage of the historic low interest rates that are currently around 5%. This is great news for all of us! The more people are able to buy the homes they really want means more houses are sold leading to further recovery of the North Phoenix, Peoria and Glendale real estate market.
The sold numbers continued to improve as you can see from the chart on the right. The sold numbers reflect an increase of 75% from February of 2008 over February of 2009. Low interest rates, pricing that mirror 2000/2001 and a first time home buyer tax credit seem to be a formula that motivates buyers to buy homes in the valley, including the areas of North Phoenix, Glendale and Peoria, Arizona. Inventory has declined as well, down to 49,651 from 55,519 on Feb.6, 2008. Great news in the housing market as recovery seems to be going forward! Prices under 100k are very competitive with multiple offers, while the condo market continues to experience downward pricing. For information on the specific market that interests you please give me a call direct at 623-229-1229.
