Arizona Real Estate Notebook

From the Phoenix Business Journal. The Arizona Department of Commerce reported Friday that seasonally adjusted unemployment in metro Phoenix increased from 8.4 percent in January to 9.3 percent in February. Yikes, that’s a pretty dang steep increase for one month! That can’t be good for the residential real estate market. Still, Arizona’s construction industry had [...]

I saw the author of the book, The Big Short, on Bloomberg TV last week and, overhearing the program, my wife and son were so intrigued they came in and watched the interview. (I ended up ordering the author’s first book, Liar’s Poker.) Yesterday, a client mentioned that she was reading the book, The Big [...]

“So a bank that holds the first lien may not even know internally that it also holds a second lien.” Full article subscribers only.

Dr. Jay Butler of Realty Studies at Arizona State University came out with his Phoenix area residential real estate sales and median price numbers for February 2010. Greater Phoenix – Median Home Price (Single-family resale homes. Excludes repossessions but includes sales by banks after they repossess. ASU calls these “Traditional Sales”) February 2010: $140,000 February [...]

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The Arizona Republic has a piece on real estate investors in metro Phoenix. Pretty good article. People used to say the boom was caused by investors but, in fact, real estate investors are a larger part of the market now than during the boom.

I can’t figure these guys out. The Federal government has spent zillions of dollars directly and indirectly to pump money into too-big-to-fail banks but then on the other hand Fannie, Freddie and now the Federal Home Loan Bank want to be compensated by the banks that sold them fraudulent mortgages. I bet there were some [...]

Soon Fannie and Freddie will be pumping $200 billion out to holders of delinquent mortgages guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. A lot of that $200 billion will be reinvested back into mortgages, putting downward pressure on mortgage interest rates and offsetting to some degree the upward pressure on interest rates caused by the end later [...]

ADDED FROM THE COMMENTS; “This was my house in the article. Glad to see the word getting around and glad you are sharing the story. The funny thing which wasn’t included in the story is the fact that the home is free-and-clear without a mortgage, so B of A has zero interest in the property. [...]

Meredith Whitney, the famous financial pundit, expects a second leg down in the U.S. housing market. I think this is certainly plausible with all the pending foreclosures overhanging the market. However, I think in many areas of the Phoenix real estate market prices are so low already that those sub-markets can clear the additional supply [...]

The Cactus League (Major League Baseball spring training in Arizona) is almost half over so it’s time to see a game in this spectacular weather. 2010 Arizona Cactus League Spring Training Baseball Game Schedule

Short Sale FAQs (Don’t miss it!)

My Queen Creek page has been whacked ever since the US Postal Service changed it’s zip code from 85242 to 85142. (Thank goodness the USPS didn’t change the boundaries of the zip code! That really causes a mess.) After spending most of my Saturday on it, my Queen Creek real estate page looks great (and [...]