Job Growth and home sales

The Arizona Repubic recently reported that the Phoenix market area is creating 90,000 new jobs each year. The paper also stated that this was the third highest place in job creation. Phoenix followed Dallas and Houston.

Job growth gives the people who currently live in mixed age communities a market to sell their homes and move to an adult community, sometimes without having a mortgage.

News like this provides a bright spot in today's housing market. More jobs means more people, followed by increasing demand for homes to shelter them.

Jim Little, Your Sun City Realtor
http://jclittle.com/
Ken Meade Realty
17001 N Del Webb Blvd
Sun City AZ 85373
800-877-1776 6
23-977-1776
By the way…if you know someone who is interested in buying or selling real estate, please call me with their name and phone number. Thank you!
See my other blog at: http://activerain.com/blogs/jlittle

Third Party Disclosure

Since January 2007, Arizona now allows sellers to purchase a third party disclosure to provide to prospective buyers. OK, what is it?

This is a report created by a third party disclosing at least 9 items. They are:

1. Flood hazard zones.
2. Military airports and facilities.
3. Military training routes and restricted airspace. (important near Luke AFB).
4. Public and private airports.
5. Expansive soils.
6. Earth fissures.
7. Special tax assessment areas.
8. Potential for radon gas.
9. Superfund sites and toxic plumes in aquifers.
10. Any additional items contracted for by the seller with the reporting party.

Providers of third party reports must carry a one million dollar errors and omissions insurance policy.

The report is based upon public records and maps. This is the problem as I see it. We know that soil, fissure and aquifer plume maps are old, incomplete, and inaccurate.Since most of these items are already covered by the Arizona Association of Realtors Sellers Property Disclosure Statements, I'm not sure how valuable the service is. It may have some value to an absentee owner.

It should be noted that this report is an option, not a requirement. Some providers of third party disclosures are marketing them as mandatory. Not true, and this marketing is a violation of the law.

Jim Little, Your Sun City Realtor

http://jclittle.com/

Ken Meade Realty

17001 N Del Webb Blvd

Sun City AZ 85373

800-877-1776

623-977-1776 B

y the way…if you know someone who is interested in buying or selling real estate, please call me with their name and phone number. Thank you!

See my other blog at: http://activerain.com/blogs/jlittle

Think you are too young to live in an adult community?

If you like many others believe you have to be 55 years old to live in an active adult community, have I got news for you.
Both Sun City Grand, and Westbrook Village have lower age restrictions. You may buy a home and live in it at age 45 in Sun City Grand. Homes for sale in Sun City Grand range from $129,000 to $889,000.
Westbrook Village has an even lower age limit. You can buy a home and live in it in Westbrook Village at age 40. Homes for sale in Westbrook Village range from $149,000 to $539,000.
How can these communities do this? The federal rule is that 80% of the homes have at least 1 occupant over 55 years old, and no occupant under 19 years old for longer than 90 days. If the bylaws of the community allow it, and the community governing body will keep the records, households can be allowed occupancy of younger people up to 20% of the total. The key is keeping records, which Sun City Grand and Westbrook do.
Think about it, you can enjoy the benefits of active adult community living while you are still young enough to enjoy it.

What about Redfin?

Like many today, I watched the CBS 60 minutes segment about Redfin versus the traditional Realtor.

Many thoughts came to mind while watching, I'll share some of them with you tonight.

A short summary of the Redfin concept is that the technologically sophisticated buyer can find a home, make an offer, complete all of the necessary paperwork etc. on the internet. True to a point.

I represent a large proportion of buyers in my real estate work. People who are going to make what is probably the largest purchase of their lives. People who are going to stake the welfare and wealth of their family on the outcome. Do you think the agent in an office in Washington is a neighborhood expert? Probably not.

If you are a buyer, how important is a neighborhood expert to you? In my area, homes for sale in Sun City, Sun City West, and the west valley of Maricopa county, you could ask many people now living on a major road with heavy truck traffic. You could ask my clients who loved a home until I pointed out the gravel pit a block away that operates 23 hours a day. You could ask my clients who didn't buy the home 1 block from the sanitary landfill. Can the on-line discount broker do that? How about the home with the awful pet smell? Will the on-line broker caution about the unusual, perhaps unsafe remodel job? How about future saleabilty of the home? Who will counsel the buyer about loan programs that are totally unsuitable?

Do you think the seller's agent, who has an employment contract with the seller is the best person to show the home? That's right folks, the seller,s agent works for the seller. It is called a fiduciary relationship and has a higher responsibilty than the seller's agent relationship to the buyer.

Another point to consider is that the Redfin success is based upon the now defunct "buyers" market. It remains to be seen how successful it will be in a "normal" market, or in the "sellers" market we are now experiencing. I remember the "dot.com" craze. I also remember the "dot.com" crash. It wasn't that long ago folks.

Another thought I had while watching the show was, is this news, or is this a commercial? I think it was a commercial, the most blatant I have seen. Does CBS get paid for this?

If this fluff piece with little merit is news, I give it about as much credence as Parade Magazine in the Sunday paper. Shows such as 60 Minutes and 20/20 are the heirs of William Randolph Hearst and the "yellow journalists" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and deserve the same disdain.

There will always be a spot for alternative brokerage models, and some will bring positive change to the industry, but most buyers and sellers of homes need and will continue to need the services of real estate professionals.

Old is New Again

An article in the May 4, 2007 Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0504biz-money0504.html, says Private Mortgage Insurance is now on the comeback.

Since the market is adjusting, and with all the bad news on teaser rates, option arms, 100% subprime, piggyback loans,ie 80/10/10, and all of the other creative programs, PMI is no longer a bad word.

PMI stands for Private Mortgage Insurance. It is the way for buyers of homes who have less than 20% down to buy a home with a conventional mortgage.

Some of us can remember when there was FHA, VA, and 80% conventional loans only. What a revolution when PMI came about. Someone with as little as 5% could buy a home! We will continue to have many more programs than we did then, but now PMI is becoming an economic option again. No resets, no teaser rates, no negative amortization, just fixed rates.

What make this very attractive now is that for loans closed in 2007 PMI is tax deductible for couples making less than $109,000. This is probably most, if not all of my clients.

In the article, David Katkov, President of PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. said buying a $100,000 with 5% down home would result in $62.50 per month in insurance costs. Beats foreclosure or short sale when your adjustable maxes out or resets doesn't it? By my arithmetic, thats about .0075%.

Jim Little, Realtor

Sun City Real Estate Market Report Jan 2007 through April 2007

Figures are for Houses, Condos, Patio Homes
Source: Arizona Regional MLS

As of May 1

• Active, 884 homes on the market
• Under contract, 129 homes
• Sold, 491

Homes for sale ranged from a studio Condo at $69,500 to a 3622 square foot hous offered at $699,000.

Homes sold ranged from a studio condo sold for $65,000to a 3067 square foot home sold at $548,800

The market isn't all that bad is it? In a four month period 720 homes were under contract or closed, 884 homes for sale in Sun City .
There is no time like the present to buy or sell real estate.
Jim Little, Realtor

Phoenix Home Foreclosure info

Having been absent from this blog for a while, I decided to re-activate it. This is the first post, I hope to make many more in the future.

In today's Arizona Republic, Catherine Reagor's column reported that while foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies have increased in the Phoenix market this past year, but Arizona still ranks low overall in the nation on this metric. In fact, Arizona in the bottom 10 in the U.S.

Reagor gives the large appreciation in the 2004-2005 period a great deal of credit in keeping the Arizona foreclosure rate as low as it is. She states the equity has allowed some homeowners to either sell even or with extra equity, or refinance out of costly loans into better long term solutions.

I hope continued growth will also help. Maricopa county still has 300+ peoople moving here a day! These folks are not going to live under a rock in the desert. They will require homes. While the resale and new market has a great deal of inventory, apartment rentals are at 98% occupancy and rents are higher. While we see new apartment buildings going up, they are still 10 months to a year from occupancy. Additionally, the units being built will not house all of the new residents coming here.

Jim Little, your Sun City Realtor