Forecast for home building in Phoenix this year – 8,500 single-family permits

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Metropolitan Phoenix’s home building market can only improve after last year’s dismal results.
The Phoenix Housing Market Letter reports 8,027 single-family, building permits were issued in the region during 2010, the lowest level in at least 20 years. In 1990, during the middle of the last real-estate led recession, there were 10,619 permits for new homes issued in the Phoenix-area.
Publishers of the Housing Market Letter RL Brown and Greg Burgerdon’t expect 2010 to be much better. Their 2010 forecast calls for 8,500 home building permits this year. By 2012, the market could rebound enough for 22,000 new homes to be built …

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Arizona to share $1.5 billion in new federal foreclosure aid

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Arizona is one of five states that will split $1.5 billion from a new federal program aimed at helping regions hardest hit by home foreclosures.
President Barack Obama announced the new funds Friday in Las Vegas as part of a government push to reduce the number of homes falling into foreclosure by assisting unemployed homeowners and other struggling borrowers.
Because foreclosures damage home values and have been a critical factor in the collapse of the housing market, any recovery will have to be preceded by a slowdown in repossessed homes.
Almost a year ago in Mesa, Obama announced the $75 billion Home …

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How many more Phoenix-area homeowners will walk away from their mortgages?

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

University of Arizona law professor Brent White believes more homeowners, who are underwater, should consider walking away.
His discussion paper “Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis,” has attracted a lot of national attention.
His theory is more homeowners could be walking away from their mortgages but aren’t because they’re being shamed by banks and politicians to keep paying or their credit will be ruined, and that isn’t fair.
“It’s unfair that responsible homeowners, who bet on the housing market just like lenders, are bearing the burden of the meltdown,” said White
Thousands of Valley homeowners, …

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Pre-foreclosures on the rise again in Phoenix

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Pre-foreclosures in the metropolitan Phoenix climbed in February, dashing hopes that the housing market is starting to recover from the crash.
In January, pre-foreclosures, known as notice of trustee sales, fell to their lowest level since late 2008. The significant drop had some housing market watchers hopeful more lenders were working with borrowers on loan modifications early on and more borrowers could afford their monthly mortgage payments.
But in February, there were 7,604 pre-foreclosure notices filed by lenders in metropolitan Phoenix, up from the 6,762 in January, reports the Information Market.
Foreclosures did fall last month to 4,271, from 4,452 in January. But …

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Phoenix home building slows as tax credit expiration looms

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The federal tax credit for homebuyers boosted new home sales in metropolitan Phoenix last year. But now the expiration of the credit looms, and new home sales and building have slowed down again.
In January, new home closings in the Phoenix area fell to 479, the lowest level in decades, reports the Phoenix Housing Market Letter. Last November, Valley new home sales surged to 1,3124 as builders offered deals to rival foreclosure prices, and buyers rushed to take advantage of the tax credit. In December 2009, there were 956 new home sales.
Home building also slowed in January. There were 678 permits …

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Buyers paying cash for Phoenix-area homes

September 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Half a billion dollars in cash was spent on downpayments and home purchases in metropolitan Phoenix last month. That tally doesn’t include mortgages on homes. It’s the pure cash figure buyers spent on existing Valley homes in July, according to Arizona housing analyst RL Brown.
 In his recent Phoenix Housing Market Letter, Brown uses the figure to show the housing market is showing signs of life after last year’s crash.
 
"The recovery in metro Phoenix housing is becoming undeniable," said Brown.
  …

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Phoenix not poster child for housing speculators this time around

May 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Metropolitan Phoenix’s foreclosure home-buying frenzy has caught the attention of other parts of the country.
Some national housing analysts are labeling the Valley recent upswing in home sales another speculator-driven boom.
But while investors finding bargains on foreclosure homes did help re-start the area’s housing market in January and February, speculators aren’t dominating the scene as they did during the boom of 2004-06.
In April, about 19 percent of all Valley homes were purchased by investors, according to the real estate analyst Mike Orr. He works with the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service and the Information Market to analyze real estate …

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New home sales climb in metro Phoenix

May 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

In March, there were 200 more new homes sales across the Valley than the month before. That may not sound like much, but it’s significant in the current slowdown.
Last month, 9124 new homes sold across metropolitan Phoenix, a 28 percent4 increase from February, according to RL Brown’s latest Phoenix Housing Market Letter.
Even better for the market is that many of the new homes to sell recently were built last year or the year before either speculatively or for buyers who pulled out of deals. Depleting the inventory of built but unsold homes will help the area’s home building market …

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Pulte buyout of Centex could make it Valley’s biggest builder

April 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The merger of U.S. housing giants Pulte and Centex Corp. could create the Valley’s biggest home builder.
Michigan-based Pulte Homes agreed to buy Centex for $1.3 billion in stock. Pulte’s purchase of the Dallas-based company will make it the largest homebuilder in the country.
At the end of 2008, Pulte was metro Phoenix’s second biggest home builder 3,228 sales, according to housing analyst RL Brown’s Phoenix Housing Market Letter. Centex was third with 980 new home closings. D.R. Horton topped the list with 3,607 closings.
Brown said Pulte will likely benefit from its buyout of Centex in other markets more than the Valley because …

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Paradise Valley’s home prices down more than median suggests

April 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Paradise Valley’s housing market didn’t do as well as the area’s 2008 median price might indicate.
The Valley Home Values’ analysis of home prices tracked by ZIP codes showed the median home price only fell about 1 percent in 85253, which spans all the upscale neighborhoods of Paradise Valley. That small price decline looks pretty good compared with those in many parts of metropolitan Phoenix, where prices plummeted more than 20 percent last year.
But several Paradise Valley real estate agents say the median home price doesn’t tell the real story for the high-priced home area.
The 85253 ZIP code definitely …

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