You’d Better Buy Now
The Communicator reports on Arizona. “It’s official! Home prices are starting to rise, houses are selling at a rapid pace, and the housing market is recovering. “Lennar’s Homebuilding Division President for Phoenix and Tucson Alan Jones talked about price disparities where those searching for a home are again willing to drive a distance to purchase a better home. Resale retailers are short on supply, according to Jones, with only a two-month’s supply. The result is that new home sales will continue to rise with more demand competing for the available homes. Jones remarked, ‘Resalers brought customers to Lennar – when (we) raised prices!’”
“There is also a perception with the rise in pricing that ‘You’d better buy now,’ commented Mike Brilz, VP of land for Pulte’s Arizona Division.”
“Jim Belfiore, president of the residential market research firm Belfiore Real Estate Consulting stated, ‘Bad assets are gone; demand is pushing up. (There will be) tremendous growth in the next 36 months.’ He sees the strongest increases in the ’submarkets’ (such as Maricopa), ‘where the most distressed supply was.’”
Inside Tucson Business in Arizona. “According to the Pima County Recorder’s Office, foreclosure notices totaled 797 for the month, bringing the year-to-date total to 6,164. That is 12 percent more than the 5,513 notices issued during the first seven months of 2011. Meanwhile, sales of distressed homes are down about 1,300 for the same comparative months. The 20 percent drop is significant, slowing to 3,252 sales this year from 4,549 last year.”
“‘There are still a lot of distressed homes out there, people who have stopped paying their mortgages but haven’t received notices yet. They are simply not that far into the foreclosure process,’ said Ginger Kneup, owner of Bright Future Real Estate Research.”
The Santa Fe New Mexican. “In 2008, Parade of Homes featured 40 houses; just 16 homes are on the tour this year. Part of the drop is related to a change in federal regulations since the crash, limiting local banks’ ability to finance speculative home projects, which used to make up the majority of the tour. ‘When a builder is building a speculative home,’ said Kim Shanahan, of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association, ‘he assumes that they are going to sell it to some high-dollar client who is moving here from somewhere else.’”
The Salt Lake Tribune in Utah. “This year’s Salt Lake Parade of Homes is a long-awaited celebration of the return of the homebuyer. Absent is the array of million dollar-plus mansions popular in past parades. Even though the parade this year is doesn’t feature a bunch of million-dollar properties, Paul Peterson with the Salt Lake Home Builders Association said there is still plenty of luxury for those who enjoy looking at — and dreaming about — expensive homes. ‘You have to remember that what in 2006 would have been a $1 million home is now a $600,000 or $700,000 home. They may have a lower price tag, but they are still luxury homes.’”
Northern Nevada Business Weekly. “Condo sales are reheating in downtown Reno. Since the start of the year, says Samantha Reveley, sales manager of The Montage, 42 condo units have sold and the property will be at 50 percent occupancy the first week of August. The first floor commercial spaces on the north and south corners have been vacant since the property was completed in 2008. The majority of sales at The Montage have occurred after the market correction in pricing — only 33 units were purchased when the building first opened.”
“Studios at the property originally were priced in the mid $250,000 range; today they sell for about $80,000, Reveley says. Those premier penthouse units priced between $1 million and $2.5 million in 2006. The last three penthouse units that sold at the Montage averaged $425,000. Helen Graham, president-elect of the Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors says that the changing face of Reno’s downtown, along with lower pricing and the availability to fund condo loans, is helping spur sales. ‘We are seeing a lot of young people who don’t want to be in suburbia,’ Graham says. ‘They want to walk downtown and be around other things. There has been a change to more urban living.’”
KLAS-TV in Nevada. “Erik Molzen knows the housing market all too well. His previous house he got rid of by short selling it. He then turned around and bought a short sale house that he is living in now. ‘There’s not a lot of steals like there were last year,’ he said. ‘It really is a sellers’ market and it’s making buyers jump a lot faster to try and find the right house at the right price.’”
“He entered the real estate profession four years ago, during the peak of the housing crisis. ‘Prices are slowly creeping up,’ he said.”
“‘Homeowners are bidding in higher than the appraised amount and bringing in cash for the difference,’ broker Dave Tina said. ‘This brings up the appraisal value for the next home and that’s where we see a lot of the increases. Look at the comparable sales that happened with the last 30 days,’ he said. ‘What a lot of them tend to do is look at something that happened three to four months ago.’”
“Realtors report about 3,500 homes sold in July.”
From KTNV in Nevada. “‘There’s approximately 58,000 properties in the valley in some sort of default. So it’s going to take us a little bit of time and challenging days ahead to get through all of that and return to a more normal market,’ said GLVAR President Colleen Kelley.”
“‘I think we’re pretty much done with the downturn,’ said Kelley. ‘Our prices are not going up at the rate they did before the housing market crash. So I don’t think we’re going to see a slide backwards.’”
Las Vegas Business Press in Nevada. “Frank Nason of Residential Resources said he’s getting a barrage of calls from sellers wanting to do a short sale. They now account for 35 percent of home sales in Las Vegas. Nason calls it ‘payment fatigue.’ People are tired of making payments on a home that’s $100,000 upside down, he said. ‘It just doesn’t quit,’ he said. ‘I’ve been working on a short sale in Sunrise Mountain for over a year.’”
Vegas Inc in Nevada. “Nevadans are falling behind on their mortgage payments at a faster rate than homeowners in almost every other state. Nevada had the second-highest mortgage delinquency rate nationwide, at 10.85 percent, in the quarter ending June 30, according to TransUnion. The report comes a few weeks after the Nevada Association of Realtors reported that residents statewide are divided on whether it’s OK to willingly default on a mortgage loan.”
“Almost half — 45 percent — said there is nothing wrong with ’strategic default,’ in which homeowners who are financially capable of paying a mortgage choose not to make payments instead, according to the realtors group. An equal number disagreed, saying homeowners have a legal and ethical obligation to pay their mortgage if they can.”
The Times Union on Colorado. “David Duval told the Times-Union that his $12.35 million home in a posh Denver, Colo., suburb is not in foreclosure, contrary to reports that originated with the tabloid web site TMZ. Duval told the Times-Union Tuesday that he and his family will be moving out of their house in Cherry Hills Village and it will be sold. There is a foreclosure notice on the home on the Arapahoe County public records but Duval said the agreement with the bank will resolve the situation without a final judgement of foreclosure.”
“‘Like a lot of people in the past few years, I made a real estate investment that didn’t go well,’ Duval said.”
“Duval has made $18,839,933 in on-course money during his career. Since the 2002 season, Duval has earned only $3,527,380.”
The Post Independent in Colorado. “Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, addressed the Glenwood Springs Association of Realtors at the organization’s annual election. Yun said roughly 15 percent of mortgage holders nationally are ‘underwater,’ meaning they owe more on their mortgages than they could get by selling the house. He said some experts put the number at around 30 percent. Local real estate experts have said that in Garfield County, that number may be 40 percent or higher, and Zillow shows that 49 percent of Garfield County homeowners are in that predicament.”
“Because houses are still cheap, and interest rates are at a 50-year low, he said, ‘There has never been a better time to buy.’ As the room went quiet, he quipped, ‘Now, I know that Realtors use that phrase every year,’ drawing laughter and applause from the crowd.”
“While his message mainly was upbeat, Yun did note that the housing market may be in for a crisis of an entirely different nature. He said there are 2.5 million homes on the market today, but fewer than 500,000 of them are newly built, and the housing construction market remains severely depressed. Plus, there is a ’shadow inventory’ of homeowners who either are seriously delinquent on their mortgage payments, or are in the early stages of foreclosure.”
“Finding a home or apartment to rent in the Roaring Fork Valley is getting more difficult, according to local leasing agents. While the March vacancy rate for Glenwood Springs was 10.8 percent, Colorado Division of Housing spokesman Ryan McMaken said that number may be artificially high. Including single-family homes in the survey would make a difference. ‘If you did an overall vacancy rate, it would probably be lower,’ McMaken said.”
“Local real estate broker Paula Derevensky agrees. ‘There aren’t a lot of single family homes on the market right now, and when there are, they get snapped up quickly,’ Derevensky said. ‘We’ve had a lot of foreclosures. Houses have been emptied and they’re not getting filled until they get sold.’”
“Garfield County had the second highest foreclosure rate in the state at the end of 2011. Jeff Chapman, a broker with Fleisher Land and Homes in Carbondale also points to the economic downturn as a factor in the high demand for rentals. ‘There’s a lot of people unable to buy,’ Chapman said. ‘People are not able to stay in their homes and not able to buy new homes.’”
