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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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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Green building conference comes to Phoenix

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The U.S. Green Building Council is holding its annual Residential Summit in the metro Phoenix Nov. 11th through the 13th. The event is expected to draw thousands of developers, planners and investors from across the country.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, households account for 20 percent of energy consumed and 21 percent of carbon emissions.
 
The Green Building Council estimates that as many as 120 million U.S. homes need energy efficiency improvements and retrofits.
 
Former Vice President Al Gore is the keynote speaker. He will speak at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field  Wed. Nov. 11th. Grammy winner Sheryl Crow …

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President signs homebuyer tax credit extension

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Today, the homebuyer tax credit extension was signed as expected by President Barack Obama.
Real estate leaders at the Urban Land Institute fall conference in San Francisco believe the tax credit has helped boost home sales and prices during the past several months. The extension and expansion of the credit is expected to buoy the housing market until next summer.
In metro Phoenix, the area’s median home price has slowing been ticking up since April.
Now that many homeowners can tap the credit to buy other homes, it could help the Valley’s ailing luxury market. …

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Controversial Arizona foreclosure law, SB 1271, repealed

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Arizona owners of second-homes or investment properties facing foreclosure have one less thing to worry about. The law that could have made them liable for tens of thousands of dollars, SB 1271 was repealed on Monday when Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB 1004.
Controversial SB 1271 required some Arizona homeowners in foreclosure to prove they had lived in a home for six straight months or they would be liable for their lenders loss on the property.
 
SB 1271 was repealed in the Arizona’s special budget legislative session a few months ago. But then in October, the Arizona Bankers Association filed a lawsuit …

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Ilegal foreclosure auctions in Maricopa County

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When foreclosure homes come up for public auction in Phoenix, a minimum opening bid is set and bidding is open to anyone.
At least that is the way it’s supposed to work.
But a Republic investigation into the daily public auctions held on the Maricopa County Courthouse steps and at some local law offices suggests a growing number of homes are sold for less than the posted opening bid.
Prices on some foreclosure homes are being dropped below the opening bid just hours or even minutes before the auction. Buyers aware of the "drop bids" scoop up the houses before other bidders know …

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Forecast for Phoenix real estate

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Here are some key data and predictions from the event “Real Estate: Evolution of an Industry.”
The final tally for home building permits in the Phoenix area this year will be about 8,800, which is down 85 percent from 2005′s peak. But building market is picking back up as the oversupply of speculative-built homes sells.
“Home builders are out of their depression,” said Greg Vogel, chief executive of Scottsdale-based Land Advisors. So far this year, 7,200 home lots ready for construction have sold in the metropolitan Phoenix. About 42 percent of those lots were bought by home builders, and they don’t plan …

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Sun City turns 50

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Fifty years ago, developer Del E. Webb opened his first Sun City retirement community, where what was then the northwestern fringes of Phoenix.
 Retirees were just beginning to flock to Arizona for its warm weather. The developer plan to sell 1,700 homes in Sun City in three years. Instead, Webb sold 2,000 homes the first year.
 The original Sun City continues to draw residents as do the three newer Sun Cities west of it in the Valley. 
Del Webb’s company, which was bought by Pulte Homes in late 1990s, changed the way American’s retire and helped make Arizona a destination for those retirees.
  …

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Well-known Phoenix developer cutting losses, moving to Caribbean

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The pioneer developer of loft living in Arizona, Eric Brown is leaving the real estate industry and the country for awhile.
Brown, who founded Phoenix-based Artisan Homes, has purchased a restaurant called Peg Leg Pub on the Caribbean island St. Martin. He’s in the process of moving there with his family.
“I think the market is still bad for developers,” he said. “I just decided I could bleed to death in this market. I will lose $500,000 by leaving now, but if I stayed I would lose $1 million.
Brown developed the Lofts on Osborn and Lofts on Central as well as …

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