Real Estate Prices Are On The Mend
The Real Estate market has been in the tank for the past 24 to 30 months. Last week, when the HUD announced the increase to FHA Loan Limits from $263,300 to $346,250 it was like a huge burden had been lifted from the back of the real estate industry.
Every agent we have spoken with in the past week has declared a market increase in buyer activity. Listing are seeing more activity and even encountering multiple buyers.
While Eliott Pollack, arguably the most intelligent Arizona economist in the valley, noted that the worst of the value decline has subsided but the slow down in buyer activity could continue through 2008 and into 2009, we in the field, feel that the bottom has arrived.
There are still some fringe communities, like Buckeye, Queen Creek, Tollosen and Laveen and a few inner cities like El Miarge and Surprise, that are feeling the downward pressure to property values, but if you're looking for that "Bell Weather" sign to tell you when to make your move with your real estate purchase, the article below should help you figure that out with crystal clarity. It's time to make your move.
Talk with your Realtor and get them on the stick to find your new home for you. You'll be kicking yourself in a few months for waiting for more down to come. It's simply not going to happen.
These cycles come in waves and the down turn usually lasts a couple of years and then the upward climb begins. The upward movement will be in very small steps at first but the movement will increase in speed and price point as we enter the selling season April through September. Get the lead out folks... get the lead out!
By "G-II" Varrato II, Realtor®, Retired USAF Red Horse 820th CES
ePRO 500, ABR, RECS, Mentor
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
Catherine Reagor and Ryan Konig
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 15, 2008 06:16 PM
Median prices of Valley homes are all over the map
The housing market's troubles are showing up in many neighborhood home prices, but not all.
Home sales are pretty much down across the board, but prices were flat or even up in one-fourth of Valley ZIP codes last year, according to The Arizona Republic's Valley Home Values Survey.
Most of the areas that posted increases in values were closer in and more centrally located, while affordable, new-home communities farther out continued to see the biggest declines in prices.
· Condominium prices in the west Phoenix ZIP code 85037, which is at the junction of the Loop 101 and Interstate 10, climbed 21 percent. This area is also south of Glendale's sports stadium hub and the new Westgate shopping center.
· The central Ahwatukee ZIP code 85042 saw home prices climb 9 percent.
· None of the ZIP codes in Tempe, surrounded by other communities, fell by double digits. The median condo price in ZIP code 85281 climbed almost 11 percent.
Home builders continued to drop prices in fringe neighborhoods, which worked to pull down those communities' overall median price.
· The north-Phoenix ZIP code 85050 saw a 22 percent drop in its median price because the area's new-home prices plummeted 47 percent. Builders were cutting prices but also constructing smaller homes.
· In Pinal County, the Queen Creek ZIP code 85242 posted metro Phoenix's second-biggest overall drop: 20.2 percent. The area's median new-home price fell by almost 22 percent.
· Home values in the Buckeye ZIP code 85296 were down 18 percent overall, while the area's median new-home price dropped 15 percent.
Neighborhoods farther out with higher-end housing developments are an exception to the fringe trend.· The median home price in the Mesa ZIP code 85207 climbed 17.7 percent, to $365,000.
· The median price in north Scottsdale's 85262 ZIP code, home to high-end golf developments, increased almost 7 percent, to $1.1 million.
Some areas are correcting from zealous prices increases.· Glendale's 85305 ZIP code posted a 23 percent drop in its median home price. But the area, home to the Arizona Cardinals' University of Phoenix Stadium, the Coyotes' Jobbing.com Arena and Westgate, saw resale prices climb 27 percent jump in 2006 and a huge 71 percent increase in 2005.
· In Phoenix's Camelback Corridor/Biltmore area ZIP code 85016, condo prices fell 29 percent.
"The bottom of the housing market may occur in 2008 or 2009, but a full recovery will probably take three to five years," said Elliott Pollack, an Arizona economist and real-estate investor. "This slowdown ends when housing prices stabilize."
Comments(4)