44 Monroe in downtown Phoenix

     The Valley's high end condo market which had been growing very fast since the construction of the Esplanade in the Biltmore area less than ten years ago has found itself with new buildings sitting waiting for buyers, and new projects put on hold or just outright canceled for lack of money, and lack of buyer interest.
This is expected to be a temporary set back for this segment of the market, the buyers and funding will return, I just do not want to go out on a limb and say exactly how long it is going to be!   The good news for long term buyers is that prices continue to drop and sellers and builders are anxious to deal! 
 
     

     This past week has seen the signing of the Stimulus Plan and the announcement in Mesa by the President of the "Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan".  These two plans are supposed to help the tanking housing market and stem the tide of foreclosures.  What is in these plans, and will they help you?
    

     Phoenix median home prices continued their decline in Jan 2009 falling to $136,000 from a high of $243,000 just a year earlier.  December 2008 median price in the valley was at $143,000.  This trend is expected to continue for at least a portion of 2009.

Two more valley homebuilders have filed for bankruptcy protection within the last week, including Tempe based Fulton Homes.

    Well the experts were in town this past week to tell us what 2009 and 2010 hold in store for us in the Real Estate field in Greater Phoenix.  The bottom line is this...expect continued price declines in 2009, with small (maybe 1 percent) price increases returning in 2010.

There was a summit held on our economy, where it is now, where it is going, and what this all means to the consumer and local businesses.  The Arizona Republic reported on the Real Estate specific portion of this summit.

Centerpoint Towers in Tempe sit unfinished

     Avenue Communities, actually the company they formed to build Centerpoint Condo's in downtown Tempe, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today.  The 23 story and 30 story towers sit unfinished in downtown Tempe, due to the bankruptcy of its construction lender, Mortgages Limited.

An alert went out today from the U.S. Government for sellers to watch out for buyers using fake "U.S. Treasury" documents that are now being used to purchase both real estate and autos.  These "fake" documents are known on the street as a Personal Promissory Notes and Private Offset Bonds, and both have the name of Henry Paulsen on the face of both documents.

A client of mine decided that putting their home up for Auction might just be the ticked to selling the home faster in this down market.  There was to be an Auction in Phoenix with hundreds of homes auctioned off to the highest bidder in mid November 2008!  The sales pitch sounded great as they told my client that open houses would now get 10-20 additional people from the auction to look at the home.   We had both heard both positive and negative comments about a Real Estate Auctions in the past.  So what really happened at this auction?

9,000 Foreclosures a day! That is how many homes were lost by families in the U.S. in October.
Arizona, our home state, ranked number two in the nation that month with 17,507 homes foreclosed.