| July 2007 News Articles | ||||||||||
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07-02: Despite downturn, Valley is No. 3 in home building , from the Arizona Republic , reports that even as the housing market continues to slow in the Valley, the area is still third in the nation in home building, according to the National Association of Homebuilders numbers on permits issued so far this year. Only Atlanta and Houston had more. All of the big markets are feeling the downturn, some more than others. Single-family construction has fallen 10 percent in Houston, 20 percent in Atlanta and 35 percent in Dallas. Phoenix is off 22 percent from last years pace. One reason cites is the number of investor owned properties in the Valley, which some estimate to be in the 10,000 to 20,000 range, and tightening lending standards. RL Brown predicted 41,000 new home permits for the Valley back in January, but is now revising his estimate downward. "Even with 35,000 or 36,000 single-family permits in a year, Phoenix still has a heckuva housing market, " Brown said. 07-10: Fees to build a house in Gilbert will increase, from the Arizona Republic, reports that starting on July 16th, Gilbert will raise its impact fee to $15,968 to build a single-family home. The old fee was $14,633. Gilbert has charged impact fees since 1997. "The council has a policy that they want all new growth to pay for itself," said Marc Skocypec, Assistant Town Manager. Once a development fee is collected, it pays for new parks, police, fire and other town infrastructure. http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/0708b1-keyissue0709.html 07-10: Office parks sprout along Loop 101, from the Arizona Republic, reports that the Loop 101 corridor between Tempe and Scottsdale is filling up fast with business parks and office complexes, much of it on tribal land. As much as 10 million square feet of development is now under construction, according to the economic development director of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Near Pima Road and Via de Ventura, Opus West Corp. and MainSpring Capital Group are developing Pima Center, a $700 million project that will be one of the largest on tribal land. It will offer 3.5 million square feet of office, hotel and retail. Other projects along the freeway corridor include Riverwalk Arizona, Calendar Stick, and Windstone. http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/0709loop0709.html 07-11: Development remakes Sun Valley Parkway, from the Arizona Republic, reports that Tartesso, Buckeye's third largest master-planned community is spurring growth along the Sun Valley Parkway west of the White Tank Mountains. About 900 of the planned 50,000 homes in Tartesso's nearly 13,000 acres have been finished. The development may take 15 years to finish, but at build-out, it could have 100,000 to 150,000 residents. Phase 1 of Tartesso will have 3,000 homes, commercial areas and parks. The entire project includes five phases on the west side of the Sun Valley Parkway and seven on the east side. Once there are enough rooftops, developers will move forward with the planned Tartesso Town Center on Interstate 10 and the Sun Valley Parkway. Definitely a housing hot spot in the Valley. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0711biz-swv-tartesso0711.html 07-11: Ahwatukee among most expensive places to live in Valley, from the Arizona Republic, reports that in a comparison of property tax and utility service rates, Ahwatukee and Phoenix are two of the moost expensive places in the Valley to call home, along with Peoria. The average Ahwatukee household pays $1,731 a year for city property taxes, sales taxes, water, sewer and sanitation, according to the report the the city of Tempe prepared. Chandler is the most affordable city to live in based on the criteria. The following is the complete list of cities and where they rank:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/0710ar-cheap0711.html <http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/0710ar-cheap0711.html> <http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/0710ar-cheap0711.html>
Annual cost of city services: Includes city property tax, sales tax, sanitation, water and sewer.
* Chandler: $1,343. * Gilbert: $1,474. * Tempe: $1,477. * Mesa: $1,506. * Scottsdale: $1,651. * Glendale: $1,711. * Phoenix: $1,731. * Peoria: $1,866.
Source: City of Tempe. 07-12: Home prices expected to rebound in 2008, from MSNBC.com, reports that the prices of new and existing homes are expected to bounce back next year after a dreary 2007, according to the latest prediction by the National Association of Realtors yesterday. The NAR expects existing homes sales to rise to nearly 6.4 million in 2008, up from the 2007 estimate of 6.1 million. New homes are expected to rise to 878,000 in 2008, from the estimated 865,000 this year. Existing home prices are expected to rise 1.8 percent to a median of $222,700 in 2008 after a 1.4 percent decline this year. The median new home price should rise 2.2 percent next year after a 2.6 percent drop in 2007. "Markets that sharply reduce new construction in 2007 will generally experience respectable price increases in 2008," said Lawrence Yun, NAR senior economist. 07-13: Valley home resales slow, from the Arizona Republic, reports that the Valley's resale-home market in June continued to run below last year's pace, according to an Arizona State University report released Thursday. About 4,910 homes sold in the month, down from 5,220 in May and 5,460 in the year-earlier period. During the first half of 2007, 29,175 homes sold compared with 36,290 during the same stretch last year. That figure was well below the 58,030 resales during the first half of 2005. "There are increasing risks that the market could move lower, driven by geopolitical risks and tighter mortgage-underwriting guidelines," said Jay Butler, director of Realty Studies at ASU. The median home price in June was $263,145, up from $262,000 in May but down from $267,000 one year earlier. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0713biz-talker0713.html <http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0713biz-talker0713.html> 07-16: Office space vacancies are up, but so are rents, from the Arizona Republic, reports that lease rates for Valley office space continue to climb to $25.82 per square foot, according to numbers released by Grubb & Ellis. That's up from $23.26 per square foot a year ago. However, vacancies are also rising. The overall vacancy rate for all classes of space in the entire Valley was 14.7 percent, up from 13.6 percent. In the past few years there has been a commercial office building boom in the Valley, with more space becoming available, much of it along the Loop 101. Experts say the extra space is not translating to a drop in lease rates because certain hot markets-- such as the Camelback corridor-- remain in high demand. 07-18: Homebuilders' confidence lowest since 1991, from the Arizona Republic, reports that the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index, which tracks builders perceptions of current market conditions and expectations for home sales over the next six months, fell to 24 this month, its lowest point in 16 years as builders struggled with rising inventories of unsold homes across the nation. Index ratings higher than 50 indicate positive sentiment about the market. The seasonally adjusted index has been below 50 since May 2006. "The single-family housing market is still in a correction process following the historic and unsustainable highs of the 2003-2005 period," said David Seiders, the group's chief economist. Seiders said he expects sales to rebound by year end and new home construction to begin recovering by early next year. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0717biz-housing17-ON.html 07-18: Investors, light rail boost Central Corridor rental rates, from the Arizona Republic, reports that office lease rates in the Central Corridor have risen to $23.62 per square foot, driven by less expensive properties attractive to investors, and by the light rail which is expected to fuel future growth and activity in the corridor. The $23.62 average lease rate is up more than $6.00 per square foot from two years ago. In addition, the vacancy rates are significantly lower than they were only a couple of years ago. The numbers signal a resurgence of sorts for a submarket that has long "played second fiddle" to more exclusive areas such as the Camelback Corridor or the Scottsdale Airpark, said Charles Miscio, first vice president with CB Richard Ellis's Phoenix office. The article also notes the per square foot office lease rates for other market areas of the Valley, including the Camelback Corridor at $33.23, Scottsdale Airpark at $29.32, Glendale at $27.78, Downtown Phoenix at $27.61 and Downtown Mesa at $15.66. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0717biz-centralcorridor0718-ON.html http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2007/07/16/daily23.html?jst=b_ln_hl http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19830597/ 07-20: Phx housing market is 'about where it should be', from the Arizona Business Gazette, reports that despite the huge nember of homes for sale in the Valley, real estate expert Jay Butler says prices remain above the national average. "The market is about where it should be, and people don't like to hear that," the director of Realty Studies at ASU said recently. Currently, the median Phoenix area home price is around $260,000, while the national median price is $219,000. Although the inventory of homes for sale has climbed to about 51,000, the Phoenix area remains one of the top 20 metro areas for a median price. Problems facing our market include buyers not being able to afford as much because of the higher prices and because skittish lenders have been tightening their guidelines. Sellers can't or won't lower their prices because they owe too much. And buyers are having problems selling their own homes.
http://www.azcentral.com/abgnews/articles/0719abg-housing0719.html http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/93599 07-23: First-time buyers get shut out, from the Arizona Republic, reports that with rising home prices and tightening lender requirements, many first-time home buyers are doing whatever they can to qualify for a new home, such as taking on second jobs, tapping into retirement funds and moving back with mom and dad. For first-time buyers, the market is more challenging at any time since the early 1990's. Nearly half of first-time buyers nationwide last year put no money down, according to the National Association of Realtors. Now, with lenders requiring bigger down payments, it is more difficult for the first-time buyer. "I could put anybody in a loan last year," said Stephanie Gagnon, a senior loan officer with First Capital Mortgage in San Diego. "But in the last six months, all of the big lenders are shutting down all special programs they were working with because they've realized it's bitten them." Now, she says, "I'm turning away 50 percent of my first time home buyers. They just can't qualify." http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0722biz-firsthouse0722.html
07-24: Scottsdale, Ariz: High-end homes help market, prices, from the USA TODAY, reports that the upper-end market in Scottsdale is holding steady and propping up overall home prices, which are relatively flat, according to Mike Deuitch, president of the Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors. "The luxury home market has fared a little better than the rest of the market over the last year or so," added Mike Glover of Prudential Arizona Properties. Still, sales volume at the top end of the market isn't enough to make up for the skidding sales for homes priced below $700,000. Compared with May of last year, single-family home sales in Scottsdale overall are down nearly 23%. The article says that a median priced home in Scottsdale would be around $630,000 with 5 bedrooms, 3 baths and 3,339 square feet. The article also notes that there are a record 45,175 single-family homes for sale in the Valley. http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/closetohome/2007-07-23-close-scottsdale_N.htm
07-25: Analyst cuts new-home tally, from the Arizona Republic, reports that local housing analyst RL Brown, publisher of the Phoenix Housing Market Letter, revised his new home permit numbers for 2007 down from 41,000 to 34,000. Brown expects the market to remain at the same level in 2008 before beginning to rebound in 2009. There were 42,460 permits issued in the Valley last year as the housing frenzy of 2004 and 2005 diminished and the market began to stagnate. Brown said the market is flooded with homes for sale with perhaps as many as 70,000 to 90,000 of them, including more than 52,000 on the Arizona Regional MLS, Brown said. He is still estimating as many as 10,000 to 20,000 builder "spec homes" are for sale, along with a similar number of investor-owned homes that are either vacant or being rented until they can be sold. "That's a huge number," Brown said. "The point is that there are a lot of homes that are going to have to be sold or occupied before supply comes into balance with the demand." Brown believes that the Phoenix housing market, even at its diminished level, still ranks as one of the country's top new-home markets. 07-26: Existing home sales keep falling, from MSNBC.com, reports that sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell in June for a fourth consecutive month, according to the latest numbers released by the National Association of Realtors. Existing home sales fell by 3.8 percent in June. But the median price of an existing home edged upward to $230,100, a 0.3 percent increase from a year ago. It was the first price gain in 11 months. Analysts, however, said they were looking for prices to fall further because of the large number of unsold homes. "With inventories still way out of line, unless prices fall a lot more, the housing market will not turn around any time soon," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors. The declines in existing home sales in June covered all parts of the country, including a 6.8 percent drop in the West. http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2007-07-19-existing-home-sales_N.htm 07-27: Pinal resale market picked up in 2nd quarter, from the Arizona Republic, reports that resale home sales picked up in the second quarter in Pinal County, with 970 resales recorded, up from 840 resales in the first quarter of 2007. The median price fell slightly to $200,000, down from $204,600 last quarter. The median price for the same time in 2006 was $211,000. "It's always a good sign to see that the market is following its normal pattern," said Jay Butler, director for Realty Studies at ASU who released the numbers. Investors have pulled out of the market, and interest rates have moved up from extremely low levels. "But the expectation of a rebound to the big (home sale and appreciation) numbers that were around... really should not be expected for a while," Butler said. Increasingly competitive prices for new homes within the Valley are still a deterrent when it comes to drawing buyers to outlying areas, Butler added. In the second quarter, 2,425 new homes were sold in Pinal County with a median price of $201,880, according to Realty Studies. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0727biz-pinalhomes0727.html 07-27: New-home sales tumble more than expected, from the USA TODAY, reports that new home sales slid 6.6% from May to June, according to numbers released by the Commerce Department, and were down 22% from June of 2006. The report follows Wednesday's news that sales of existing homes fell last month to their lowest level in nearly five years. The median price of a new home in June dropped 2.2% from June of last year to $237,900. "The housing market tried pulling the rip cord, but the parachute didn't open, " Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors wrote to his clients Thursday. Sales of new homes, he says, are on track for their worst calendar year showing in a decade. Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, predicts that "the U.S. housing downturn has at least another year to run." 07-31: Foreclosures rise 58 percent in first half of '07, from MSNBC.com, reports that the number of U.S. homes facing foreclosure surged 58 percent in the first six months of 2007, with 573,397 properties in some phase of the foreclosure process in the first half. The numbers were released by RealtyTrac. "We could easily surpass 2 million foreclosure filings by the end of the year, which would represent a year-over-year increase of over 65 percent," said RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio. California, Florida, Texas and Ohio led the nation in homes receiving foreclosure related notices, California alone has 104,572 properties receive notices of default, more than double a year ago.The national foreclosure rate through the end of June was one filing for every 134 U.S. households, the company said. Lagging home sales and flat or decreasing home prices have made it more difficult for homeowners who fall behind on payments to sell their homes and clear the debt, spurring the rise in foreclosure activity. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20041753/ 07-31: Foreclosures soar in Arizona, from the Arizona Republic, reports that numbers released Monday by RealtyTrac shows that foreclosure related filings in Arizona increased by 128 percent in the first half of 2007, over the same period a year ago. In total, RealtyTrac estimated that one in every 92 households in Arizona is in some stage of foreclosure. In Maricopa County, there were 19,394 properties in some stage of the foreclosure process in the first half of 2007, compared with 7,671 during the same period in 2006. Experts say the increase in foreclosures was not unexpected after the housing boom of 2004-2005 and the easy credit available. Now, many of those loans which were ARMS are being adjusted upward, causing homeowners and investors to look to sell or refinance. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0731biz-foreclosures0731.html | ||||||||||
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