The Tempe market continues to show improvement. As noted in The Cromford Report’s snapshot chart, sales over the month of June increased to the highest level since the same time in 2007. Days on market dropped nicely. However days of inventory remained flat to a month ago, although months of inventory continued to decline. Pending listings were down from a month ago suggesting that sales going forward may be leveling out.
Chart copyright 2009 www.cromfordreport.com
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The Cromford Report recently published their mid-June pricing update. Key points are:
As discussed in the report:
… we have already recorded an average 5.7% increase for monthly sales $/SF since the confirmed low point on April 6. Median sales prices reached a confirmed bottom of $115,000 on April 30, and have risen 6.4% to $122,410 since then. Monthly average sales price has recorded a 7.7% increase since April 6.
There is now no doubt that overall average $/SF for monthly sales, monthly average sales price and monthly median sales price are all increasing.
Other points:
The Cromford Report has taken a stance as mentioned above that we have hit bottom, and will see rising prices, or possibly a flattening out over a long period of time. Others dispute this claiming that there is a pent up backlog of foreclosures that will be hitting the market to drive prices down again. As noted elsewhere, even if a deluge of bank owned homes come on the market, the demand seems to be so high and supply so short, that it will not make much of a dent, at least over the next few months.
If you need to buy soon, you may want to consider all of the above and move now while rates and prices are still relatively low. Buyers still have the upper hand, especially when negotiating with regular (non-bank) sellers.
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Buying a condo in Tempe is a popular choice, particularly for Arizona State University students. If you want to use an FHA loan, the condo has to be on the HUD approved list. If not on the list, then you could try to have the condo unit “spot approved”, a relatively short process for the lender to gain FHA approval for the unit you want to buy.
With a hat tip to Kris Berg, it seems that HUD is planning to eliminate the spot approval option in favor of streamlining approval of entire complexes. As noted by George Souto, the “streamlined” process will still be too long to get loan approval in a reasonable time. Not good if you are a student (0r parent) trying to finalize your condo purchase in time for the next class session.
If HUD does not change their guidance, then expect spot approvals to be gone by October 1st 2009.
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Over on Trulia.com where you can post questions about real estate and properties listed on their site, I see many questions about the amazingly low prices of some homes in higher priced areas such as Paradise Valley. The price listed is usually in the $10,000 - $20,000 range. I recently answered one asking why there were so many in Paradise Valley for sale under $50,000.
Unfortunately for the would be buyer, those homes are for lease, not for sale. The price is the monthly rental cost. The homes are typically very large with high end custom finishes and many times fully furnished. I suspect many of these buyers are searching for homes in Trulia priced below $100,000 (or $50,000 in this case), and are surprised when these homes show up on their search list.
The lowest priced home available in Paradise Valley as I write this is a $93,000 short sale condo. The least expensive single family home starts in the mid-$300’s. Over 400 of the approximately 500+ single family homes for sale are over $1,000,000.
Trulia often does not indicate that the homes are rentals, among other vital information. If you are looking for accurate, up to date listing information, with access to all listings in the Phoenix area MLS, then look for an agent website such as this one, that provides an IDX search connection to the MLS.
Here’s a search map (using my IDX capability) that provides access to all Paradise Valley homes for sale:
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The Tempe police department recently published their 2008 annual report. As noted in the report, the department had four main goals for the year:
Their effort paid off in a reduction of key crime indices as compared to 2007:
Check out the report for a summary of their various activities. Also visit Tempe’s crime analysis website for additional information.
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Looking for a 4th of July fireworks show around the Southeast Valley? Here’s the rundown:
Mesa shows were canceled due to budget cuts.
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Recently, the city of Tempe approved Date Palm Manor as a new neighborhood historic district. It consists of about 40 homes near Broadway Road and Mill Avenue built during the 1950s. It is Tempe’s fourth historic district. The other districts include:
Click here for a map and list of Tempe neighborhoods under consideration for historic district status.
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Ah, the joys of buying a bank owned home (also called an REO, Real Estate Owned). Found a great potential rental home in Tempe near ASU for my investor client.
Quickly put in an offer above list to have a shot at it. A couple days later finally got the listing agent to respond to my emails and voicemail inquiring if they got the offer and current status. Listing agent says the bank has multiple offers and will probably respond asking for a highest and best offer (the buyer will need to decide if they will keep current offer as is or increase the price and/or improve other terms).
Well over a week later we are still waiting for a response from the bank of any kind. This is almost as bad as a short sale (well, not quite that bad :). Listing agent said the asset manager (the bank representative) was “out for a few days”, and was now back working late to catch up. That was 3 business days ago (they don’t work weekends).
When dealing with banks you need lots of patience, whether waiting for an offer response, getting the written bank addendum so you can fully execute the contract, or in general, waiting for any response. Here’s a general flow of how this works:
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Recent Tempe Listings
