Scottsdale-based Meritage Homes building up a 2010 profit

April 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

To survive the housing crash, home builders had to slash prices, cut costs and find ways to compete with foreclosures.
Scottsdale-based Meritage Homes is one of the industry’s survivors. The company, metropolitan Phoenix’s only publicly-traded home builder, is on track to make a profit this year, says CEO Steve Hilton.
The builder is selling more homes than a year ago, experiencing fewer cancellations from buyers, receiving a hefty tax refund and has completed a large financing deal.
Meritage Homes closed on a $200 million private placement offering Tuesday. The deal helps the Scottsdale-based home builder to pay off some of its senior notes …

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Key indicators from Phoenix's Housing Market

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There are some positive signs coming from metropolitan Phoenix housing market. Foreclosures dropped slightly in September while home prices inched up again.
Last month, lenders foreclosed on 3,759 Valley homes, an almost 5 percent drop from August, according to the Information Market. It’s the second month in a row foreclosures, or trustee sales, have fallen. Pre-foreclosures also dropped in September, a good sign there will be another decline in foreclosures this month. There were 7,857 pre-foreclosures, or notice of trustee sales, filed by lenders last month. That’s an 11 percent drop.
There’s been a big push by the government and nonprofits for …

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Two AZ "foreclosure rescue" firms to pay $1.37 million in fines, restitution

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Arizona Attorney General’s office has settled two mortgage fraud lawsuits for $1.37 million. Most of the money will go towards paying restitution to consumers who lost money to the "foreclosures help" firms.
Richard Winer, principal of the firm Taken Care of Investments, has agreed to pay fines totaling $691,000,half of which goes to consumers who lost money to the firm, according to a Maricopa Superior Court consent judgment.
In March, Attorney General Terry Goddard’s filed a complaint alleging Winer and his businesses defrauded 270 Arizona homeowners in danger of foreclosure, by promising to obtain the deed to their home and then …

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Check out Valley Home Values

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There’s no doubt its been a tough year for metro Phoenix’s housing market. But some areas are showing smaller declines than last year.
Foreclosures homes resold by lenders continue to dominate the market, but the marketshare for those homes is shrinking.
Check out Valley Home Values at homevalues.azcentral.com to see what home sales and foreclosures are doing to prices in each metro Phoenix ZIP code. …

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Posted by CatherineReagor’s Blog

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Short sales jump in Phoenix; lenders making faster decisions on deals

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Short sales may be a new best option for Valley homeowners struggling to avoid foreclosure.
Home-loan modifications, endorsed by the federal government, are most borrowers’ first choice when they fall behind on their mortgage payments because of a drop in their income. But short sales are also part of the federal housing plan to slow foreclosures. Unlike their slower-than-expected actions on loan modifications, lenders are now moving quickly on many short-sale requests in the Phoenix area.
New figures for the Valley show a record number of short-sale deals in various stages of completion. Pending short sales, including all of the deals …

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Posted by CatherineReagor’s Blog

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Homeowners wanted

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Are you trying to sell your home, contemplating walking away because you owe more than it’s worth or just frustrated by the foreclosures in your neighborhood? I am working on a story to tell the plight of the typical Valley homeowner right now. Please contact me with your story at catherine.reagor@arizonarepublic.com. …

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Alphabet soup of recovery theories for Phoenix's housing market

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Theories for the housing market’s recovery remind many of alphabet soup – V, W, L and U.
Real Estate analyst RL Brown explains the recovery scenarios behind each letter in the latest Phoenix Housing Market Letter.
V – This is the symbol behind a fast crash and subsequent fast recovery. We already know this won’t be the case. “The V’s were the rose-colored glasses folks,” says Brown.
W – The symbol for a double-dip recession. If this plays out, we are in for another stock market crash, spike in foreclosures and big drop in home prices. “The W’s are the skeptics,” says Brown.
L …

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Posted by CatherineReagor’s Blog

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Health care trust spends $107 million on Phoenix-area office buildings

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Last week, Arizona’s big real estate deals involved foreclosures on prominent developments under construction – CityNorth in Phoenix and the Centerpoint condominium towers in Tempe.
This week’s big deal is the large cash acquisition of Sun City-area medical office buildings by a Scottsdale-based investor, a transaction that conveys more confidence in the area’s real estate market.
Scottsdale-based Healthcare Trust of America, a real estate investment trust, has paid $107 million in cash for 17 properties in Sun City and Sun City West.
“These assets provide stability and growth potential. We were able to secure this unique opportunity because of our strong …

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How Phoenix's housing market fared in 2009

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There’s no doubt that 2009 was a horrible year for metropolitan
Phoenix’s real estate market. What most people hope is that it
will be the worst year ever recorded, and 2010 will be better.
Here are some final figures for last year, and not all are as bad
as expected.
There were 7,723 Phoenix-area home sales recorded in December,
according to Mike Orr’s Cromford Report. That’s more than double
the number of home sales from December 2008. Last month’s hearty
sales pace puts the annual total for the area at 92,435, which is
up 50 percent from a year ago and near 2006′s pace.
Foreclosures showed signs of slowing during …

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Arizona to receive another $118 million in federal foreclosure help

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Arizona will receive another $118 million in funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help neighborhoods with too many foreclosures.
The money will come in the next few months as part of the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
Phoenix’s share of this round of funding will be $60 million. Other recipients are the non-profit Chicanos Por La Causa ($36 million) and Pima County ($22 million).
Funding is awarded based on need. Arizona is one of the states hardest hit by foreclosures. Applications for this round of funding were submitted late last year.
In early 2009, several Valley communities, Maricopa and …

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