Arizona Real Estate Informer

Valley housing sale prices keep rising

The Valley housing market has settled into a pattern of mild price recovery, with the median sale price rising by a few thousand dollars in recent months, according to the latest Arizona State University report on same-home sales.

But the report's author warned area residents not to interpret his findings as proof that home prices have stabilized.

Professor Karl Guntermann, who published the most recent ASU Repeat Sales Index report on Tuesday, said there are signs that home foreclosures in 2010 could jolt the housing market out of its current state of relative calm. More...

Sell Short, Get $1,500 in Closing Costs

The U.S. Treasury is poised to announce a finalized plan to expand mortgage relief efforts to include short sales.

A short sale occurs when the bank allows the sale of a home for less than the existing mortgage balance.

It's a strategy to avoid foreclosure, but banks have been more likely to let a home go into foreclosure, rather than short sell it, even if it means holding the property during moratoriums set by some jurisdictions. More...

Prediction: Homes Sales to Rise 11 Percent

Sales of existing homes will rise 11 percent in 2010, and sales of new homes will climb 21 percent over this year, Mortgage Bankers Association Chief Economist Jay Brinkmann predicted in a speech Tuesday at the organization’s annual meeting.

"We still see a concentration in the lower end of the market," Brinkmann said. "The entry level homes are in demand."

Brinkmann also predicted further declines in existing home prices, with the median falling to $164,200 in the first quarter of 2010.   More...

Bank-owned . . . and not improving until the economy does

Home-foreclosure activity has spilled across every geographic and socioeconomic border this year, proving that no community was too cautious, clever or well-funded to remain unscathed.

Subprime lending

gave the home-foreclosure crisis its initial push, but the problem could not have reached existing proportions without feeding on a host of broader economic problems, according to real-estate experts responding to the latest Valley Home Values data, provided by Information Market.  More...

Home resales hold steady in September

Valley home resale transactions held steady in September with 6,135 sales recorded in Maricopa County

, compared with 5,995 sales in August, according to a report from Arizona State University.

Home foreclosure activity also remained about the same, with lenders foreclosing on 2,935 single-family homes in September - down slightly from 3,085 foreclosures in August.  More...

Phoenix ain't Detroit

The unemployment rate in the Phoenix metro area is catching up with national norms. Still, its resiliency remains remarkable, given the real estate depression we have experienced and the extent to which it is commonly thought that the local economy is dependent on real estate.

There are 26 metro areas in the country with more than two million people (excluding Washington, D.C.). The average unemployment rate among the rest of them is 10.2 percent. The Phoenix metro rate is 8.7 percent.  More...

Arizona property-tax bills up despite drop in home values

Many Valley homeowners can expect to see at least a slight increase in their property taxes this month, despite the significant drop in their house's value.

The Maricopa County treasurer began sending out tax bills last week and will continue through the end of the month.

Much of the increase is due to the state equalization tax, which is back after a three-year hiatus. The tax, which helps fund education in Arizona, adds $58 this year for a homeowner with a property assessed at $176,000, according to an Arizona Republic analysis.  More...

Drop in startling cuts is sign that housing market may soon reverse slide

There's more to indicate that the housing recession has hit bottom than Thursday's dual announcements that housing starts rose 1.5 percent from July, and new jobless claims dropped by 12,000 last week.

Homeowners looking to sell are also putting the brakes on the trend of aggressive price cuts, indicating that the real estate market may be closer to salvation than previously thought. In 20 major U.S. housing markets, the percentage of homes that have suffered price reductions is dropping. More...

Fight looming on tax break to buy houses

DALLAS - When Congress passed an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers last winter, it was intended as a dose of shock therapy during a crisis. Now the question is becoming whether the housing market can function without it.

As many as 40 percent of all home buyers this year will qualify for the credit. It is on track to cost the government $15 billion, more than twice the amount that was projected when Congress passed the stimulus bill in February.  More...

Strategic Defaults: When Homeowners Walk Away From Mortgages They Can Afford

Even when a home is financially underwater (the total mortgage balance is greater than the value of the property) owners will usually make serious efforts to keep from defaulting. But only up to a point. If it gets too far underwater, people will let it go -- even if they can afford to make the payments. While there may be an intuitive sense to this, the fact is not widely recognized. More...