Arizona Real Estate Notebook

Well, international monetary traders are betting on the U.S. dollar appreciating against the euro. Don’t know their outlook regarding the Canadian dollar exchange rate. Canadians planning to buy an Arizona home might want to consider getting their ducks in a row (that is getting their (Canadian) home equity line of credit completed) and putting some […]

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Phoenix homes have depreciated 24% from their peak value in June 2006 according to my analysis of the Case-Shiller data. From the August 2007 mortgage meltdown to this latest data for February 2008, prices fell 17%, or almost 3% per month. And the fall continues to accelerate but at a decreasing rate according to the […]

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San Diego foreclosures are a lot cheaper! In San Diego County, California, “Single-family houses in foreclosure sold for a median price of $365,000, compared with a median of $500,000 for nonforeclosures. The 2005 peak in that category was $565,000.” Throw in a study from a university professor. In areas with no foreclosure sales, the median house price dropped […]

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I’ve railed against liar’s loans here. Now a professional writer at Slate explains liar’s loans and the mortgage meltdown better than I ever could. The term is mortgage-industry slang for what’s more formally called a “stated income” mortgage—a mortgage that a lender gives without checking tax returns, employment history, or pretty much anything else. Many of the […]

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From the Wall Street Journal; “Yale University economist Robert Shiller, pioneer of Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index, said there’s a good chance housing prices will fall further than the 30% drop in the historic depression of the 1930s. Home prices nationwide already have dropped 15% since their peak in 2006, he said.”

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From a nice little bit about doom sayers (and cars). Stanford economist Paul Ehrlichs 1968 book “The Population Bomb,” which opined that, “The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970s…hundreds of millions of people including Americans are going to starve to death.”

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I was in HomeSmart’s office in Mesa last week with a couple of clients from Canada after a day of home shopping. We were back in the conference room looking at the MLS on the huge flat screen monitor on the wall, checking out the comps to their favorite homes. Their favorite home had five […]

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What surprised me most about this chart of home prices in several countries was that the United States experience was far from the worst.

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John Burns an economic consultant to home builders produced a neat little video on housing cycles. He is talking to home builders but much of what he says applies to resale homes. His intro is pretty honest for a consultant to homebuilders. Over the next few years record numbers of home builders, land developers and […]

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I did a CMA for a gentleman in Paradise Park Trails this morning and found the real estate market there strengthening. Paradise Park Trails, McCormick Ranch, Scottsdale Arizona;

Homes sold in the last 3 months = 2 Homes currently under contract to buyers = 6 Homes currently listed = 14

You can see a burst of recent sales (currently under […]

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Phoenix homes have depreciated 21% from their peak value in June 2006 according to my analysis of the Case-Shiller data. Since the August 2007 mortgage meltdown, prices have fallen about 15%. The home price depreciation in Phoenix continues to accelerate according to the latest Case-Shiller numbers. From December to January the Phoenix Home Price Index fell […]

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Gilbert Realtor Jay Thompson has a post about some nifty little U.S. housing market graphics at the Wall Street Journal. This is a don’t-miss for real estate geeks.

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What took so long?

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Home lenders are losing bazillions of dollars. I wonder how they can lose so much money and still stay in business. Apparently, the Fed is concerned too.

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Jon Lansner of the Orange County Register interviewed USC real estate finance professor Tracey Seslen on where we are in the housing cycle.

Us: So how does this up/down cycle compare, nationally and locally, to previous real estate cycles? Tracey: In the past, housing downturns have often accompanied a more general recessionary environment. In this particular instance, […]

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I just finished updating the zip code notebooks with data for January 2008. January was generally weak as it is every year. Select your zip code from the list in the right-hand column or click here to see the list of zip code real estate notebooks.

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Now isn’t this interesting. The daughter of Vice Chairman and co-founder Bruce Toll informed the company last month that she and her husband “did not intend to make settlement” on a $2.47 million home they had previously agreed to purchase… Toll Brothers went on to say that it intends to pursue its rights Blood is thicker than […]

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When it rains it pours! Too bad Phoenix isn’t one of the cities where Beazer will stop building. Beazer said the company will exit home-building operations in Charlotte, N.C., Cincinnati/Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, Columbia, S.C., and Lexington, Ky.

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A recent article mentioned how Arizona building permits in 2007 were down 25% and Arizona homebuilders production was down 27%. Not nearly good enough because other sources show that Arizona homebuilder inventory of spec homes has not gone down. Arizona home builders continue to be behind the curve and continue to chase the […]

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There is a surge of purchases of Arizona properties by Canadians but on the flip side, American are still buying recreation properties in Canada as well. “American buyers are still coming here,” Nielsen told the Georgia Straight. “There’s still a great demand for Washington guys to drive up to B.C. and get some great skiing, some […]

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Interesting tidbit from a home builder stock blog. He calculates the probability of bankruptcy at 79% for Standard Pacific, 70% for Hovanian, 68% for Beazer Homes and 66% for Meritage Homes. RELATED: Florida home builder files for bankruptcy.

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One down. Engle Homes’ parent files for bankruptcy.

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For Arizonans of a certain age, the music of John Stewart fills a chapter of our lives.

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Dear Bargain Hunters, yes it’s true! Of course… it’s in my father’s home town of Carrington, North Dakota. It’s brisk this time of year but the price is right! (My dad used to enjoy the hell out of calling everyone he knew back in North Dakota whenever there was a particularly frigid […]

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U.S. homebuilders are easing back on new construction when they should have slammed on the breaks over 2 years ago! … privately-owned housing starts for the month of January 2008 fell 14.2 percent month-over-month as compared to December 2007. Not the sharpest knives in the drawer, at least the homebuilders are cutting back on new construction now. […]

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