Phoenix Real Estate | Phoenix Homes for Sale | All Phoenix Real Estate » 2008 » January

Entries Tagged as ''

Phoenix Real Estate Inventory Drops 5% Overnight

Jonathan Dalton, Phoenix Real Estate Agent Amazing what an arbitrary date on a calendar will do.

Full absorption rate figures to come later in the day but this was worth an early bulletin - just under 5% of the Phoenix real estate market’s resale inventory of single-family detached homes disappeared overnight.

As of a few minutes ago there are 36,810 single-family detached homes for sale in Maricopa County, down from 38,741 on December 25. There was no spike in closings so nearly all of the change came from listings expiring on December 31.

Many of these homes likely will return to the market, so the question isn’t whether the inventory will ramp back up buy how quickly it will do so.

Having said that, the 36,810 represents the lowest total resale homes for sale in Maricopa County since the week of May 1, 2006. That was pre-credit crunch and only a couple of months into the uncovering of the subprime fiasco.

Technorati Tags: Phoenix real estate, real estate inventory

Popularity: 7% [?]

RE/MAX 2000 Redux

Jonathan Dalton, Phoenix Real Estate Agent There generally are a lot of loose ends when a real estate brokerage closes its doors. All agents work under the auspices of the broker and cannot conduct any real estate business except on behalf of a broker.

Some agents from RE/MAX 2000 were receiving e-mails indicating that they may be performing unlicensed real estate activity in the interlude while they found a new brokerage with which to hang their license.

But the attorney for RE/MAX 2000, Dax Watson on Monday told the Arizona Real Estate Educators Association that there can be no unlicensed activity because RE/MAX 2000 hasn’t really closed its doors:

Re/Max 2000 is still open and current plans are to keep at least five offices open. Likewise, we contacted the ADRE before any notice was sent out to agents about this matter – I personally assisted in that process and that contact was made on December 21, 2007.

Further, contrary to mis-reports in the media, we invited the ADRE to conduct an audit, we did so on December 26, 2007, because we wanted the ADRE to be comfortable that all funds have been handled properly and that we could use the ADRE as a resource to help us navigate through this difficult time. Again, I personally assisted in that process.

The misinformation that has been circulated with this matter has been nothing less than staggering. Yes, there are problems. But, Re/Max 2000 and Re/Max International have been working non-stop to try and overcome these problems and has kept the ADRE in the loop every step of the way.

It wasn’t just the media reporting the closure. Many agents read communications from the company to mean that the brokerage was shutting its doors.

Watson was indirectly quoted in the first news report in saying agents listings would follow them to their new company, which also is an indication of a full closure - rarely do brokers allow agents to take their listings with them when they move.

In any event, the plan is to keep a scaled-back version of RE/MAX 2000 operating in 2008. We’ll see how it goes.

Technorati Tags: RE/MAX 2000, Phoenix real estate, real estate brokerage

Popularity: 6% [?]

Phoenix Real Estate Representative Rental Rates and Affordability

Jonathan Dalton, Phoenix Real Estate Agent One of the indicators of the state of the real estate market is the relationship between rental rates and mortgage costs. People often will be willing to pay a little more to own a property versus renting, but there are limits.

Below are actual rent rates of properties leased within the last week. For purposes of comparison, I’m using the lowest listed rent in the Arizona Regional MLS for a representative property (at least 3 bedrooms in most cases, 2-car garage, etc.).

The only city missing, at least for now, is Phoenix - it’s far too large an area to try and cover with one or two properties and I’m debating whether to go the ZIP code route:

AVONDALE

3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1575 square feet - $895
4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1796 square feet - $945

BUCKEYE

3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1690 square feet - $850
4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1096 square feet - $850

EL MIRAGE

3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1308 square feet - $895
4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1495 square feet - $895

GILBERT

2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1074 square feet - $850
3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1283 square feet - $895
4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1566 square feet - $995

GLENDALE

4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1793 square feet - $895

GOODYEAR

3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1591 square feet - $900
4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1959 square feet - $1,000

LAVEEN

3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1714 square feet - $825

MARICOPA

3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1529 square feet - $850
4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2619 square feet - $895

PEORIA

3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1235 square feet - $850
4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1693 square feet - $1,095

QUEEN CREEK

3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1359 square feet - $775
4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1904 square feet - $775

SURPRISE

2 bedroom, 2 bath, square footage unlisted - $850
3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1434 square feet - $895
4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1615 square feet - $875

TOLLESON

3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1436 square feet - $950
4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2170 square feet - $895

So the question becomes, what do the numbers tell us? Not much without the second part, which is the price to purchase in all of these communities. And those numbers will come tomorrow (sorry, you’ll have to come back again.

I can tell you the rents shown are higher than what has been present for some time. For instance, Surprise and El Mirage three-bedroom homes were under $800 for most of the past year as there was increased pricing pressure from investors searching for tenants and sellers looking for a second option when they couldn’t sell.

There are two factors that can close the gap, obviously - decreased home values or increasing rental rates. The former’s more likely than the latter but that doesn’t make the latter entirely implausible. And proportionally, a rise in rental rates tend to equal larger jumps in sales value.

An easy way to ballpark the cost of a mortgage payment will be somewhere is to figure a payment of about $6 or $7 monthly per thousand. So a $25 increase in rents has the same impact as a drop of about $4,000 in sales price. That’s 2% on a $200,000 home.

Again, this isn’t to say rental rates will continue to rise - not with inventory still high. But it’s something definitely worth watching.

Or at least I think so … if you also think this is worth a recurring post, either weekly or monthly, jump into the comments.

Technorati Tags: Phoenix real estate, real estate affordability, real estate values

Popularity: 6% [?]