Arizona Real Estate Informer

Mixed-use project plan spurs gripes in east Mesa

A neighborhood meeting to gather area residents’ input on a major rezoning case is as much about therapy as it is about democracy, zoning attorney Reese Anderson explained to a crowd of about 100 homeowners Wednesday in the posh east Mesa community of Las Sendas. Residents at the meeting cycled through the usual emotional stages of shock, denial, anger, and for some, qualified acceptance of a proposed mixed-use development adjacent to their upscale neighborhood. Anderson represents landowner and developer JCA Holdings, which is proposing a hotel, condominiums, office buildings and a retail center on the 50-acre property, at the northwest corner of McDowell Road and Ridgecrest Street just east of Power Road. More...

Thousands of Arizonans in danger of losing homes

Queen Creek couple Michelle and Morris Benoun moved to Arizona last year with hopes of escaping California’s exorbitant housing costs and finally buying a home for their two children. But their dreams quickly crumbled when money troubles plunged the first-time buyers into foreclosure. The couple arrived in town to find that their monthly loan payments were $1,846 — roughly $300 more than what the loan officer had promised. Home values were sinking across the Valley. And a job loss sent the Benouns tumbling into a deeper financial pit. More...

Valley home builders battle slump

With the record home sales of 2005 long past, Valley builders aren’t sitting back, hoping for a return to the glory days. They’re repricing homes, changing up what’s included in option packages, ramping up marketing and cutting staff. Some 3,135 new homes were sold across the Valley in May, a slight uptick from the month before, the latest Phoenix Housing Market Letter by analyst RL Brown shows. But that’s still a 26 percent dip from May of last year. More...

Chandler's new home market dips

For the first time since 1992 when Chandler started linking population growth to construction, the number of new homes finished in a single month has dipped below 100. The total, representing single family homes, condominiums and apartment units ready for occupancy, was 94 in May, the last month for which totals are available. That's down from 235 in January and totals higher than 300 for the most months during the past 15 years. More...

Factory-built homes back in vogue

Remember the tight, cute "kit" cottage you saw at the annual Home Show (one of five clustered in the featured vacation-home area) that would fit just perfectly on the wooded lot you've always wanted in the mountains? It seems that builders and manufacturers always are urging consumers to dream -- whether it be a stately primary residence or a precut timber home composed of hand-milled Montana logs trucked directly to your site. More...

New-Home Sales, Prices Decrease

New-home sales resumed falling in May and the big jump in demand the month before was revised lower, while the median price of a home compared to a year earlier dropped. Sales of single-family homes decreased by 1.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 915,000, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. April new-home sales rose 13% to an annual rate to 930,000; originally, the government said April sales rose 16% to 981,000. More...

New Home Sales Fall in May; Prices Up

Sales of new U.S. homes fell 1.6 percent in May to a lower-than-expected level while prices climbed from April, according to a government report Tuesday that continued to point to weakness in the housing sector.New single-family home sales fell to an annual rate of 915,000 from a downwardly revised rate of 930,000 in April, the Commerce Department said. Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting May sales to fall to a 925,000 unit pace from a previously reported rate of 981,000 units in April. In May, the median sales price of a new home rose 1.5 percent to $236,100 from $232,700 in April. Last month, new homes prices took a record tumble while sales rose strongly. More...

First residential phase of Prasada in the works along Loop 303

The first residential component of Prasada, a 3,000-acre mixed-use development going up along Loop 303, is expected to go before the City Council in July and break ground next summer, with its first units likely completed by late 2008. Previously, project developer Westcor and its partners would not set a definitive building schedule for any of Prasada's residential or retail components, saying each piece's construction would be market driven. The first residential development, Prasada Lakes Village, made its way through the preliminary planning and zoning process last week and should reach the council at its July 26 meeting, said city planner Dennis Dorch. More...

Habitat starts work on affordable townhomes

Habitat for Humanity volunteers have begun the construction of five affordable townhomes going up in the organization's very first townhome project. Johnson Townhomes is going up between Cottonwood Street and Paradise Lane in Surprise's Original Townsite, a square mile area bounded by Bell, El Mirage, Greenway and Dysart roads. Each Saturday this month, future occupants of the homes have worked to raise townhouse frames. The families are required to put in 400 hours of "sweat work" on their units, said Habitat for Humanity of the West Valley executive director Roger Schwierjohn. More...

Town Lake development changing even naysayers

Tempe Town Lake has changed rapidly since it was filled in 1999. Though concept naysayers seemed to come out on top for a time, land around the lake is now some of the most valuable in the city. In the past nine years, private property within the 743-acre district that surrounds the lake increased in worth to $93.6 million, from $15.4 million, according to county records. More...