Arizona Real Estate Notebook

Click here to see full MLS report.

Click to enlarge. See the official website of the Cactus League which includes a map of Cactus League stadiums and a pdf version of the Cactus League schedule above.

I took some photos while hiking the Gateway Loop Trail in the McDowell Mountain Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale this morning with Liz and Peppy. I put the photos on a website of mine I’ve been using for experimenting with live blogging photos and video, Scottsdale Homes Agent. I think the Gateway Loop Trail is about [...]

4 Bedrooms + 2.5 Baths + Heated Diving Pool + 2-Car Garage + Small Workshop   First home on the park to be listed in the MLS since 2009! People love these homes on this neighborhood park so they don’t come up for sale very often. All new kitchen in 2006 including new cabinets, Silestone [...]

In 2011, MLS sales were the second highest sales record of the decade (100,959), second only to 2005’s housing bubble peak (104,725). 47% of Phoenix home sales all cash in 2011 Surprisingly, 47% of those sales were cash. Not surprisingly, 63% of the cash purchases were for homes under $100,000. Another 24% were in the [...]

I’ve said for a long time that once home prices start increasing mortgage money would magically appear. The firm Capital Economics, a company I’m not familiar with, expects the housing crisis to end this year, in part because of loosening credit. However, other market indicators point not just to a stabilization of mortgage lending standards, [...]

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I think Elliott is more pessimistic than I am. I’m feeling pretty good about the direction and the prospects over the next several years. As for Arizona, the state ranked 22nd in job growth in 2011 compared to 49th in 2010 and 2009. This is the best relative performance since 2007 when it also ranked [...]

East Valley Tribune. Economist Elliott Pollack cited figures showing that from 1950 through 2006 the state ranked second or third in employment growth. But all that changed with the recession, with Arizona particularly hard hit: By 2010 the state was losing more jobs, on a percentage basis, than anywhere but Nevada. So far this year, [...]

I can’t find this information on Elliott’s website but you can subscribe to his weekly newsletter here. As for Arizona, in December, the unemployment rate remained at 8.7% compared to 8.5% nationally. The level of jobs in the state now stands 37,500 above a year ago (December). Greater Phoenix has created 28,600 jobs over the [...]

Sun City West 85375 Sun City West and it’s neighboring zip code immediately to the south, Surprise 85374, had pretty much identical costs per square foot of single family homes sold from 2000 to 2004. Today, however, the difference is about $25 per square foot. That’s not so bad because in 2009 the difference was [...]

Phoenix Home Sales Factoid: More than twice as many homes sold in metro Phoenix in December 2011 (6,661) than in December 2007 (3,161). Phoenix Housing Inventory The number of homes listed for sale in metro Phoenix (red line) fell in December and January. I had expected that the number of single family homes listed for [...]

You can listen to my interview with Steve Goldstein of KJZZ radio this morning. Also on the program “Here and Now” was Mike Orr of The Cromford Report fame and now also ASU’s new director of the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice in the W. P. Carey School of Business. Is Real Estate [...]

Email me if you would like Robyn’s or Lonny’s contact info. [I'm having fun experimenting with the new mobile video blogging capabilities. It'll be fun to see how I end up incorporating video into my websites.]

If you’re thinking about selling your Desert Ridge home, please consider interviewing Francie to be your real estate agent. Francie lives in Desert Ridge, knows Desert Ridge very well, of course, and Francie is very high energy and will work extremely hard for you. In fact, in most parts of metro Phoenix I have real [...]

You’ll notice that last night the gremlins added a list of recent videos in the sidebar of this website. The sidebar shows the 10 most recent Youtube videos that I’ve posted here. If you’re a “visual learner” like I am, I think you’ll find this addition super useful. On the home page, the list of [...]

I’m totally psyched about this! (I’m such a geek!) My zip code graphs now all begin in January 2000. The 124 zip codes covered are listed in right-hand column or at the bottom of this page. This is GREAT because it gives us 2+ more “normal” years of home-sale data to look at which gives [...]

From the Phoenix Business Journal. Arizona Population Growth Arizona added 90,000 residents between April 1, 2010, and July 1, 2011. That equates to a 1.42 percent growth rate. Both in raw numbers and percentage terms, Arizona ranked eighth for growth. Arizona’s population as of July 1, stood at 6,482,505. It is the 15th most-populous state. [...]

John Talbott at Seeking Alpha; I have been waiting for more than five years to offer this advice. It is now time in most cities across the country to buy a new home or refinance your existing home with thirty-year fixed rate mortgage debt. And this from the author of The Coming Crash in the [...]