Arizona Real Estate Notebook

US apartment vacancy rate hits 23-year high-report. Investors penciling out homes might want to be conservative on their projected rents.

The Federal Reserve began winding down its agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) purchase program, announcing $2bn fewer purchases for the week ending September 30.

Hey!

Long, well researched, article on the Phoenix commercial real estate market in Bloomberg. As tenants abandon space, landlords are struggling to meet their obligations. Commercial properties with mortgage payments 60 days late or more rose to 8.5 percent as of August in Phoenix, up from 1.6 percent in March, data compiled by Bloomberg show. My [...]

Mike Orr of the Cromford Report (subscription) mentioned last week in a talk detailing the current Scottsdale luxury home market that with home prices rising in some areas of metro Phoenix (not luxury areas), it’s rational for banks to move more slowly on foreclosing homes in areas where prices are rising. That sounds very rational [...]

I think prosecuting real estate fraud is a great use of government money. Knowing that the rules of the game will be enforced, creates more confidence in the economic system, confidence that is kinda shaky right now. For example, if the government had more strongly enforced the fraud and abuse that went on during the [...]

You hire a real estate agent to sell your home. It’s not a short sale. What are the odds your home will sell before the listing expires or the listing is canceled? Right now the odds are 50% that your home will fail to sell during that listing. However, a 50% failure rate is, in [...]

From Calculated Risk. Hmm, I wonder if I should look into refinancing?

All 124 zip code real estate charts available in the right-hand column have now been updated through August 2009 with the number of home sales, the median home price and the median home price per square foot. Phoenix median home prices by zip code through August 2009 Phoenix home PRICE trends – No changes West [...]

I assumed this must be happening — people who default on their mortgages even though they can afford to make the payments — but I’ve never seen numbers until now. “Who Walks Out? New Studies Shed Light on Strategic Defaults” (Emphasis is mine.) According to Experian and Wyman, numbers of strategic defaults are far greater [...]

Really cute dog! I saw him again in the park last evening. It’s a real shame the family can’t keep him but it turns out one of the kids is allergic to dogs.