DMB Associates Inc. is preparing to roll out a new neighborhood in Surprise’s Marley Park, signaling another turning point in the housing recovery.
The new Marley Park neighborhood, combined with the resumption of work in Verrado, another DMB master-planned community in Buckeye, represents a return to work in the West Valley for the developer, which put a number of projects on hold in the wake of the housing crash more than five years ago.
Read more: DMB resumes projects in the Northwest Valley
It’s a seller’s market in metro Phoenix real estate, with so few moderately priced houses on the market that typical buyers have to scramble to make a deal.
Last week, about 13,000 houses and condominiums across the region were listed for sale. In 2008, there were four times as many houses for sale in the Phoenix area, according to the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service.
Houses, particularly those priced below $200,000, are selling faster than they have since mid-2006, at the peak of the housing boom. The typical house now sells within 72 days, almost half the time it took five years ago.
Read more: Metro Phoenix real estate now a seller's market
The following is a sampling of median home prices for Maricopa County municipalities with at least 50 sales of single-family detached houses during the past two years. (Some municipalities overlap into Pinal County.) See how your community's median home price for 2012 compared to last year's price and which municipality had the biggest overall increase:
Read more: Valley Home Values 2013 : Median home prices for 2011-12 by city in Maricopa County
Climbing home values are sparking a surge in refinancing across metro Phoenix. With the overall median sale price up nearly 40 percent since January 2012, most homeowners trading in loans for lower rates don’t need help from a federal program to get it done.
Tens of thousands of homeowners, underwater on their loans a year ago or less, now have enough equity to refinance with interest rates below 4 percent. The new mortgage loans can save hundreds of dollars a month, freeing money for other expenses or to pay down debt.
Read more: Rising home values in metro Phoenix spur refinance boom
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported the housing market index (HMI) decreased 2 points in March to 44. Any number under 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as poor than good. Read more... http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/03/builder-confidence-declines-in-march-to.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+CalculatedRisk+(Calculated+Risk)&m=1
Q: "It seems to me that you are writing a lot about reverse mortgages recently ... is the subject really worth the time you are spending on it?"
A: I think so. I view the home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) program as an important, if partial, solution to a critical problem: an increasing concern among people looking ahead that their living standards won't be maintained after they stop working. Read more... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/inmannews/~3/QBYWWurF2nU/borrowers-control-risks-associated-with-reverse-mortgages
The Gilbert Town Council on Thursday approved a $2 million economic-incentive package for a Colorado-based furniture chain that plans to build a showroom and warehouse in the town’s Power Road Corridor.
American Furniture Warehouse is looking to open near Power Road and the Santan Freeway within the year, potentially bringing 300 jobs and $150million in annual sales to the area.
Read more: Gilbert council OKs $2M deal to lure furniture chain
The developer who invented the concept of upscale living around world-class golf courses in Scottsdale three decades ago is now building on one of the last residential parcels in the northeast Valley city.
Lyle Anderson plans to build 250 custom homes and a resort on 223 acres next to the Golf Club Scottsdale. Plans for the community, called Sierra Reserve, began to take shape at the height of the housing boom and have evolved in the years since. The community at Dynamite Road and 118th Street is Anderson’s smallest development so far, and his first since 2008.
Read more: Sierra Reserve is Lyle Anderson’s smallest project, but the developer still finds he’s in
The growing number of metro Phoenix rental homes is putting pressure on monthly rents in some areas. But the rising price of buying a home is making it a financial toss-up for many people trying to decide whether to rent or to own.
There were a record 2,645 leases signed for houses in the Phoenix-area during February, according to the Fletcher Report. The average monthly rental rate was $1,100 last month, exactly the same as in February 2012.
However, the own-to-rent ratio climbed from 10.4 percent a year ago to 13.6 percent now.
Read more: Rental-homes spurt impacts monthly rents
Plenty of Arizonans continue to struggle financially, but their stress isn’t showing up in bankruptcy filings: The number of Valley residents seeking protection in February fell at the fastest pace in nearly 6 1/2 years.
Throughout metro Phoenix, 1,059 individuals and businesses started bankruptcies last month, down nearly 35 percent from February 2012, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix.
Filings have dropped for the past 25 months when compared with the same month in the previous year. The cyclical peak of 3,063 bankruptcies was reached in March 2010. The most recent results showed the best rate of improvement since October 2006 — one year after the numbers were distorted by a change in the law making it less advantageous to file.
Read more: Metro Phoenix bankruptcy filings fall at fast clip
Imagine putting your house up for sale and selling it a day later.
A few years ago that would have been unlikely but it is exactly what happened to a Scottsdale couple last month.
Vivien and Helmut Stampf listed their four-bedroom home southwest of 94th Street and Thunderbird Road for sale Feb. 1 for $385,000. They had 28 viewings in two days and four offers by the end of the second day. Three of those offers were above the asking price, Vivien Stampf said.
Read more: Speedy home sale reflects recovery in housing market
State officials acted legally when they took $50 million from a national mortgage-settlement fund and used it to help balance the state budget, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
Billion-dollar investors backed by Wall Street continue to buy metro Phoenix houses with plans to turn them into rentals.
Two apartment developers are asking Scottsdale for more time to build their residential projects northeast of Scottsdale and Camelback roads.
Scottsdale is setting its sights on acquiring nearly 4,000 acres of state trust land in the far northern area of the city.
The Scottsdale McDowell Sonoran Preserve Commission is working to prioritize a list of state land parcels that have long been sought for conservation.
The commission, at its meeting last week, considered four parcels northeast of Happy Valley and Scottsdale roads and stretching farther northeast of Pima Road and Dynamite Boulevard.
Read more: Scottsdale aims to add to Sonoran Preserve
The Florence Town Council is preparing to take more than 1,100 acres from Curis Resources, a company it is locked in a bitter dispute with over a proposed copper mine.
Mortgage rates vaulted higher today at their fastest pace since late January, after the Employment Situation showed an unexpectedly high number of jobs created in February. The Employment Situation is the most important piece of domestic economic data each month and always has the potential to greatly impact markets. This was indeed the case today, and it brings 30yr Fixed Best-Execution up to 3.75% for the first time since May 2012. Lenders are still offering lower rates, but at greatly increased costs. For every $100k in loan amount, you'd pay an extra $700 of closing costs to keep yesterday's rates at an average lender. On average, the costs associated with 3.625% yesterday are the same costs associated with 3.75% today.
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