Arizona Real Estate Informer

Tax Strategy for Real Estate

A popular tax-deferral trick for real-estate investors is facing scrutiny as key middlemen in the strategy run into financial trouble.The problems are starting to leave investors with significant losses, and raising the possibility of increased oversight of a lightly regulated corner of the real-estate investment world. In at least one instance, a firm that helps investors defer taxes this way is facing allegations of fraud. The strategy, known as a 1031 exchange, lets investors who sell investment properties defer capital-gains taxes if they invest the proceeds in "like kind" property within 180 days. To qualify for the benefit, the seller can't touch the money from the sale. Instead, the funds must go into an account until they are used for the purchase of a new property. That's where the money can be vulnerable. More...

Buying a Retirement Home

Retirement-home sales are growing -- among buyers still decades away from retiring.From New York's Catskill Mountains to Oregon's rocky coast, younger couples who might otherwise be focused on building a nest egg instead are buying a lakefront house or country cabin that they hope to one day use in retirement. For these younger buyers, this isn't an extension of the real-estate investment bug that bit a few years ago and is now fading as home prices flag in many markets. And they're not throwing financial caution to the wind just because they want a second home. More...

Q1 Home-Price Growth Marks Slowest Pace in 10 Years

WASHINGTON —  The rate of increase in U.S. home prices remained slow in the first quarter of the year, marking the slowest growth pace in a decade and extending a trend that began last year.Figures released Thursday by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the agency that oversees the big mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, provided the latest indication of a modulated slowdown in the once-sizzling housing market.Average home prices edged up 0.5 percent in the January-March period, compared with 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2006, the report showed. House prices were 4.3 percent higher in the first quarter of this year than they were in the same quarter of 2006. More...

New home prices plunge, sales soar

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A big drop in the price of the typical new home sold in April spurred much better-than-expected sales, according to the latest government reading on the battered real estate and home building market released Thursday.New homes sold at an annual pace of 981,000 in April, up 16.2 percent from the revised 844,000 pace in March. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast an 860,000 rate in April. More...

Prospects dim for quick home-price recovery

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home prices fell over the last 12 months for the first time in 16 years, according to a survey released Tuesday, and investors seem to believe that prospects for a quick recovery are poor. The S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index revealed that in 13 of 20 metro areas surveyed, home prices fell an average of 1.4 percent in the 12 months ended March 31, with half of that decline, 0.7 percent, coming in the first quarter. More...

Mortgage applications fall

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Mortgage applications declined last week as interest rates hit seven-month highs, according to the latest report by the Mortgage Bankers Association.The industry group's seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications fell 7.3 percent to 636.4 in the week ended May 25, from 686.2 one week earlier. More...

Westcor announces power center tenants, Goodyear gets first Bashas'

Mall developer Westcor today announced that Bashas', Staples, Shoe Pavilion and Razmataz have committed to the power center that will be built next to the Southwest Valley's first regional mall.
It will be Goodyear's first Bashas' store.
Market at Estrella Falls is the power center. It's projected to open in fall 2008. More...

New Arcadia homes changing neighborhood's character

Big, modern homes are changing the character of Phoenix's Arcadia neighborhood, sparking concern among residents that the area's 1950s charm is evaporating one house at a time.
The east Phoenix spot has long been known for its quiet streets, lush landscaping, citrus trees and vintage ranch homes. It's also one of several city spots to become a destination for reverse migration, where families disenchanted with the ritzy, far-off locales move closer in, often bringing their taste for grand homes with them.
But without room to build, developers are buying up older homes and tearing them down. Since 2005, more than 50 demolition permits have been issued in Arcadia. More...

Pulte to cut 16% of workforce

The slowdown in the housing market is taking another bite out of Pulte Homes Inc.'s local work force. The Michigan-based company, the second-largest home builder in Northeast Florida, will lay off about 16 percent of its work force. Pulte expects to incur a pretax charge of $40 million to $50 million, most of it in severance costs. The majority of that cost will be incurred in the second quarter. The company plans to reduce pretax spending in 2007 by $90 million to $100 million. More...

Why today's new homes are better than 30 years ago

I often hear people say of some old house, "Wow, they don't build 'em like this anymore." To which I'm often tempted to add, "And it's a good thing, too." There's a lot to be said for the aesthetic of older homes -- I've said a good deal of it myself -- but on the technical side, houses are far better built today than they were just 30 years ago, let alone 60 or 100 years. For one, we know a lot more about protecting houses from all the bad things that can happen to them. More...