Percentage of change 2001-2006 / Percentage of Change 2005 - 2006 / Overall Median Price in 2006
Cave Creek: 113.9% / 11.3% / $528,875
Carefree: 137.6% / 19% / $875,000
North Scottsdale by zip code:
85255 - 135.7% / 9.9% / $780,000
85262 - 161.4% / 26.6% / $915,000
86260 - 122.9% / 8.7% / $565,000
85254 - 125.7% / 12.9% / $535,000
Paradise Valley: 124,4% / 33.1% / $1,850,000
Information provided by the Arizona Republic 03/11/07
Outlook 2005, September 9, 2004 Provided by area industry experts Phoenix Outlook: Joe Porter – CB Richard Ellis – Office and Industrial: Industrial – West Valley will be the hot spot. Not only are there a lot of master planned communities being built, like Verrado and Sundance, but there will be a big need for industrial space as well. Office – Scottsdale Airpark, Perimeter Center and Kierland will be the best office space in the metro area. Strong office space areas will be the Loop 101 from Chaparral to Desert Ridge, Deer Valley and Chandler. Lenders love the Phoenix market. Judi Butterworth – DeRito Partners -- Retail: Stanley Cook – Housing Market: · All elements are here for the continuation of good growth. We have one of the greatest markets in the U.S., second only to Atlanta, which is much different than ours. In Phoenix it take 1000 homes per year to make it into the top 10 home builders – that’s huge · Our marketplace is a 12 month building market – most are not. Big advantage · Sundance in the west Valley has new homes going in for under $100,000 – Sundance is a retirement community · There will be a new Sun City on the west side of the White Tanks Mountains, Call Sun City Festival. There will be 9,000 units built by Pulte · Rancho El Dorado, just north of Casa Grande, is a new master planned community in Maricopa and only 20 minutes from the southern Tempe and Chandler business markets · “If you think the last 10 years were big in Phoenix, just wait and see where the next 10 years will go” · All the surrounding states in the Southwest have problems affecting housing: New Mexico, Colorado, Vegas, California and Utah – all have very limited growth potential due in part to affordability, land availability and water EXCEPT the Phoenix area. Vegas is “frozen” now due to lack of water · USAA alone will have 30,000 employees when it’s built out
High demand for luxury homes continues
Glen Creno
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 20, 2004 12:00 AM
Players in metropolitan Phoenix's luxury home market say demand for expensive houses is running high despite rising prices and scarce land in desirable neighborhoods.
Traditional luxury enclave Paradise Valley leads the pack when it comes to highest median price but values are rising faster in other expensive spots. Among them: North Scottsdale, Carefree and the Biltmore and Arcadia areas of Phoenix.
Investors, retired executives, athletes or successful business types looking for the ultimate in move-up housing are helping drive sales of new and existing luxury homes. Their willingness to pay up for a big house loaded with things such as a home theater, gourmet kitchen and wine room on a sizable lot is ratcheting up prices and changing the boundaries of the luxury market.
"It's nuts out there," said Tori Levitt, senior mortgage consultant with Optimum Financial. "I think it is a great market for both buyer and seller."
Buyers benefit with low interest rates and interest-only loans that keep payments down, she said. Sellers, she said, are enjoying multiple offers and noted that full-price offers are becoming pass頡s most serious buyers are bidding above the list price to lock up the deal.
"Values are jumping by the thousands in the span of just a few months," Levitt said. "Sellers are negating appraisals out of the contracts and requesting non-refundable earnest deposits following inspection periods."
Home values in pricey neighborhoods have been on a tear in recent years. The median price in the combined new and resale markets in the Paradise Valley ZIP code 85253 has risen from $687,500 in 1999 to $938,750 in the first half of this year, a gain of more than 36 percent, according to The Arizona Republic's analysis of data from Marketon.
That market has cooled somewhat since last year but nearby luxury ZIPs are hotter than ever. North Scottsdale's 85255 ZIP, home to trendy communities such as DC Ranch and Troon, was a strong performer last year but moved into the elite class of price gainers, up more than 17 percent in the first half of this year.
The median overall price in the ZIP is $499,250, beaten only by Paradise Valley, Carefree and neighboring ZIP 85259 that covers the Shea Boulevard corridor on Scottsdale's eastern boundary.
Some Valley housing pros still define a luxury home as one that costs at least $1 million. But others say that $1 million doesn't get you in the door in the best neighborhoods and insist that luxury really starts at around $3 million.
The top house deals in metropolitan Phoenix routinely run in the $2 million range and $3 million sales aren't unusual. In a recent week this month, all of the top 10 house sales were $2 million or more, with two exceeding $6 million and one other of more than $3 million.
"The days of building a $2 million custom home in north Scottsdale or Paradise Valley are rapidly coming to a close," said Tony Calvis, a principal of Calvis Wyant Luxury Homes, a custom builder in Scottsdale.
Commercial real estate developer Russ Scaramella and his wife, Lori, looked at houses all over the Valley before settling on a DC Ranch home that was under construction. The couple figures they saved time and money by buying a speculative, or "spec," house that Calvis Wyant was working on. They still were able to pick out the features that would give the house its final look while bypassing a big chunk of the building process.
The house cost between $4 million and $5 million and covers 8,200 square feet. The couple evaluated the house for its investment potential and knew they were moving to a neighborhood that is appreciating. But they also sized it up for its proximity to schools, its views and as a place to raise their four children.
"We didn't buy it to sell it," Russ Scaramella said. "We bought it to live in it."
Rising land prices are helping drive up the price of luxury homes. The wave of teardowns, the practice of buying and destroying an old house to clear the lot for a new mansion, is moving beyond Paradise Valley and Arcadia. Calvis said it's happening more often between 64th Street and Scottsdale Road, mainly between Shea Boulevard and Cactus Road where buyers are attracted to houses sitting on acre-sized, or larger, lots. Phoenix's Central Avenue Corridor also is picking up more teardown action as buyers who work downtown try to shorten their commutes.
"The big thing is this just continues to be a great place to live," Calvis said. "Because of that, I'm very bullish on the future. . . . We don't have an ocean but it is pretty close and people in California who have an ocean don't have a problem coming here."
LATEST NEWS (From the Arizona Business Journal) 1:06 PM MST Tuesday Resale housing market up 38 percent over last year The Valley's resale home market jumped 38 percent in 2004, rising from 73,785 homes changing hands in 2003 to 102,115 recorded sales last year. Since 2000, the local resale housing market has consistently set new records, officials of the Arizona Real Estate Center at the East College at Arizona State University said Tuesday. For the year, the median home price increased 22 percent, going from $156,000 in January to $190,000 in December. The median square footage for a single-family home sold in 2004 was 1,685 square feet, while it was reported as 1,670 square feet in 2003. "There are four basic motivations that drive home buyers: the need for housing, especially for new residents; the desire to own, not rent; the dream to improve current housing; and/or to invest in housing as a rental or seasonal home," said Dr. Jay Q. Butler, Arizona Real Estate Center director. Looking across the Valley:
The highest median sales price was in Paradise Valley at $925,000 with a median square footage of 3,525 square feet. Butler noted that low interest rates continue to support the strong housing market. With that in mind, Butler said in order to sustain home buyer motivation, the economic recovery must continue, home prices must not rise so quickly as to result in affordability issues and future traumatic events must be limited. For more: www.east.asu.edu.
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Appraisal fraud: your home at risk | |||||||
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Appraisers say they're being pressured by lenders to inflate their estimates of home values. | |||||||
The appraisal tells bankers, brokers and, ultimately, investors whether a house is a sound investment. But, as the Appraisal Institute recently testified to Congress, appraisers are under increasing pressure from lenders, mortgage bankers and real estate agents to "hit their number" when appraising property. Rather than come up with an independent estimate of a home's value, appraisers -- who are typically independent contractors -- say they are being told to base their estimate on a predetermined value. Alan Zielinski, owner of FAST Appraisals in "All [lenders and brokers] want to do is hit the number because if they don't hit the number the deal doesn't go through and if the deal doesn't go through they don't get the commission," said Zielinski. In theory, it's in a bank's best interest to make sure its loans are based on accurate appraisals, said M. Thomas Martin, of the National Mortgage Complaint Center in Seattle. "But if you're selling the loans to the secondary market, you really don't care," he said. "The higher the value, the better." (In the secondary market for mortgages, primary lenders sell off the loans they originate to other institutions, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.) If a lender sells a loan to the secondary market knowing that the appraisal is inaccurate, said Tim Doyle, director in government affairs with the Mortgage Bankers Association, the lender is held accountable. "Our position is that we have the same concern with inaccurate appraisal as does the conscientious homebuyer," he said. Trouble is, pressure on appraisers is often subtle and not easy to prove, said Don Kelly, vice president of public affairs for the Appraisal Institute, which is calling for stronger regulation at the state level and legislation prohibiting lenders from meddling with the process. The problem is so widespread, that more than 8,000 appraisers – roughly 10 percent of the industry – have signed a petition asking the federal government to take action. Appraisers, like auditors, are supposed to follow a strict standard of professional behavior, said David Callahan, senior fellow at the public policy organization Demos and author of a recent report about appraisal fraud. "What is actually happening is lenders and brokers are telling them what value they want," he said. "If [appraisers] don't play ball, they don't get paid or don't get work again." Inflated values A puffed up appraisal can have serious consequences for a homeowner down the road. "There are a lot of people who have refinanced for more than their homes are actually worth and they're effectively already upside down even without a real estate bubble bursting," said Callahan. Down the road if they have to sell or decide to refinance, a more accurate appraisal might show that they owe more than the house is worth. "The real issue is on the refinance side where people are cashing out of their equity on the basis of higher and higher values," said Zielinski, who before accepting a job e-mails lenders and brokers to remind them that he is obligated to appraise property based on market conditions, not a predetermined value. "Conservatively, I'd say that 10 percent of the houses I appraise are worth less than the mortgage on them." One overvalued appraisal can skew home prices throughout a neighborhood, according to the Appraisal Institute's Kelly. "If a house is appraised for 10 percent or 15 percent more than it's actually worth and the sale closes, it may be used by another appraiser as a comparable sale the very next day," he said. "It has a ripple effect." That could have even greater implications, said Martin. "The cumulative effect of appraisal fraud is you may have investors holding mortgage debt that's backed by real estate worth less than they think it is," said Martin. "It's a train wreck waiting to happen." |
Catherine Reagor, Glen Creno and Ryan Konig
The
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Metropolitan |
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Metro
The run-ups have come at a price. For the first time, Valley housing costs have surpassed the national median, but
So a slowdown in home-price increases is warranted for metro
Appreciation gains slow
In the 1990s, Phoenix-area homeowners were happy with annual 10 percent price jumps.
A slow down in price inflation is good news for many important players in metro
Ruiz was able to buy a remodeled
Buyers needing roommates to afford a home is a new trend for metro
"Buyers have had to sacrifice a lot to get into houses they want," said Stacey Akers of
Earlier in the year, bidding wars were common in the resale market, and houses sold for thousands of dollars above asking price. Real estate agents talked of contracts written on car hoods and houses bought sight-unseen by out-of-state investors hoping to cash in on soaring prices.
Returning to normal pace
Akers says the Valley's housing market is starting to return to a more normal pace, which is good for buyers and sellers.
"Some buyers were promising sellers the moon and then backing out of deals," she said.
On the new-home side of the business, builders still are holding drawings for the limited number of lots they release. Some buyers camped out overnight at subdivisions hoping to get lucky one of the drawings. Builders also banned or restricted buying by investors, who then poured into the resale market and began pushing up those prices.
The
"Prices aren't climbing as high as they were. It's a mild correction the market definitely needed," said P.J. Dean, a real estate agent with Dean-Maldonado. "But people are still slugging it out for houses."
It's the homes selling for under $250,000 that move the fastest. Lucas Gotta returned from military service in
The sellers' agent, Dawn Marie Bailey of Re/Max Integrity, called Reed the next morning to tell him she had 25 offers so far, and 10 of them were from investors who hadn't even seen the home. The young couple's offer had been the first one not from an investor, and Bailey, who wanted to work with them, made a counteroffer of $173,000. Gotta and Donelson jumped at the deal and closed on the house by June 30.
Investors came to Valley
Investors are making up at least 25 percent of all Valley home purchases this year. Many of them were attracted to the
Carol Ewig, an agent at
"Nobody has called me yet and said, " 'Carol, let's sell.' I do feel the market has slowed but it's not a bursting bubble. There are a lot more homes on the market."
In some areas, the market has slowed from overdrive to merely very, very fast. Jenny Chesnik and her husband, David, recently sold their house at an 83 percent profit to buyers who made them an offer, even thought it wasn't for sale. The buyers had been looking for nine months but couldn't find anything on Chesnik's street in north
"The Realtor looked up our tax records, Googled our name and left a message for me," Chesnik said. "A few days later, the Realtor came for a tour and said her buyers must see the house. The wife was on a cruise but had left a signed contract. The husband toured the home the following day and said that he wasn't leaving until we had a deal."
Affordable to others
Even with rising prices, houses in metro
"He saw a model and said he had to 'get it for his wife,' " said Kitty Pabich of Coldwell Banker Residential. "One look was all it took. They purchased it that day and moved in last month."
They made so much money on their
Analysts think price gains will slow, a healthy change for an overheated market.
"The good news is that we've seen the decline begin in price increases and that's the most positive thing that could happen to this market now," said housing analyst RL Brown, publisher of the Phoenix Housing Market Letter. "We need to see that decline continue until we no longer face a potential crisis of losing our affordability advantage."