Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog » Arizona

More fun with Phoenix housing prices

Steve Belt — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:34:25 +0000

Ok, yesterday I had some extreme examples of irrational housing prices, so today, I wanted to come a little closer to center. A little closer to what the average home owner may be feeling is happening to the value of their own home. Again, with a couple of specific examples.

North Phoenix Example

This is a Brady floor plan, built by DR Horton in the Dynamite Mountain Ranch subdivision, which is found in North Phoenix, near I-17 & Happy Valley Road.

Sold: 1/29/2003 $199,885

Sold: 9/15/2006 $420,000

Sold: 4/17/2009 $210,000

Size: 2313 Square Feet, 3 bedroom, plus den, 2 bath, granite counters, maple cabinets, pool

DR Horton built this floor plan in a number of locations throughout the valley, but Dynamite Mountain Ranch is a personal favorite of mine (I manage a number of rental properties there, along with owning 2 rental properties there myself). The home’s layout results in a very practical and efficient use of space, with each room being large enough to breath in, yet no room being excessively large or tiny.

When this home sold last month, it was as a foreclosure. All of the appliances were still in the home along with the cabinets (not always the case with a foreclosure). The flooring was in good shape (mix of tile and carpet) and the walls were custom painted throughout, which was also in good shape. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget the pebble tec swimming pool with water feature in the back yard. Overall, this home was actually in better condition, than when it was purchased new (when considering the addition of the pool and painting).

North Scottsdale Example

This is another Brady model by DR Horton, but this time in the Scottsdale subdivision of Horseman’s Park near McDowell Mountain Ranch.

Sold: 5/23/2003 $338,729

Refinanced in 2005 & 2006

Sold: 3/26/2009 $385,000

Size: 2313 Square Feet, 3 bedroom, plus den, 2 bath, granite counters, maple cabinets

Once again, this home was in pretty good condition, without any glaring deficiencies like missing appliances and/or cabinets. As you can see, Scottsdale’s prices are higher than Phoenix for an equivalent home, but the price changes over the last 6 years are not much different.

Again, for this look at prices, I chose what I consider to be average homes for the area. These are not homes way on the outskirts of town, miles and miles from a freeway. These are both homes within a few minutes of major shopping and dining, freeways, employment centers, and entertainment venues.

(PS- McDowell Mountain Ranch currently has a woefully limited supply of quality homes for sale. If you are a home owner in McDowell Mountain Ranch, with a well cared for, move-in ready home, that is considering selling, you will find there is actually pretty strong demand for your home.)

Is there a point here?

Hopefully the point here is obvious. Once again, I’m only showing a couple of homes, but these sales are very typical of subdivisions sales results throughout the central part of the valley, rather than the outlying areas. The majority of homes selling today are selling for prices approximately equal to their price back in 2003. Nearly all of the massive run up in valuation that was experienced in the 2004-2006 time period has at this point been wiped away.

Looking for a deal, when it comes to buying a home today? Take out your box of darts. Stand opposite a map of Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs. Put a blind fold on. Throw a dart at the map. Wherever it lands, that’s a good deal.

Highlights from Ignite Phoenix #3

Steve Belt — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:29:15 +0000

Yes, I’m hijacking my own blog to talk about Ignite Phoenix #3 again, but a few things rang true for me, and I wanted to share some of the highlights with you, in case you missed it. In no particular order:

Chanelle Richardson suggested we all cook at home more and eat out less. And when we cook, have fun, and treat ourselves to a great meal.
Derek Neighbors practically brought the house down with his energy packed discussion about wasting energy on nearly fruitless endeavors.
Brian Carson encouraged us all to volunteer in the community more. He noted that our society is engaging more and more with each other online (not necessarily a bad thing), at the expense of time spent “offline” helping in our communities.
Eric Weisbrod hit on Brian Carson’s point as well, continuing the discussion and description of how much community involvement has retracted over the last 50 years as a result of TV and now the Internet.
Brad Biddle described how one group is working to use algae to replace bio and petroleum fuels in our society with a product (algae) that can be produced locally the world over. Honestly, I may have seen a glimpse of a beautiful and brown cloud free future, thanks to Brad.
Pamela Slim encouraged us to embrace, and better yet, act in the face of fear. The state of the US financial markets certainly has many Americans in fear, each of whom would be well served by acting.
Paul Kenjora shared that it is now possible to lease solar panels for your home that are essentially free. A company in California (SolarCity) will lease to you the panels, which they install and maintain, for a low monthly fee. The cost of which will be offset by lower APS or SRP bills. I’ll have more to share on this topic in the near future.

Of the 18 presenters, these 7 stuck with me the tightest, but none of them sucked. Ignite Phoenix #3 hit an absolute home run last night. They were recording the event, and I suspect if you keep your eyes on the Ignite Phoenix blog, a post will be up shortly, where you can watch or re-watch all 18 presentations.

Skiing in Arizona and need a place to stay?

Steve Belt — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:22:30 +0000

It’s that awesome time of year right now, when the weather in Phoenix is in the 60′s and 70′s, and you can do darned near anything you want, from hiking to golf to tennis to an afternoon picnic in the park. It’s also ski season in Northern Arizona, with awesome ski conditions at both Sunrise and Arizona Snowbowl.

If you aren’t familiar with where to ski in Arizona, Sunrise is northeast of Phoenix about 230 miles, near the town of Pinetop, and is operated by the White Mountain Apache Indian tribe. Snowbowl is just north of Flagstaff, and is within the Coconino National Forest. Of the two facilities, Snowbowl offers more advanced terrain, but suffers from older ski lifts which limit it’s capacity. Snowbowl is working on that problem, however. Sunrise has spent a small fortune in recent years upgrading the park. Sunrise boasts the only detachable high-speed quad chairlift in Arizona, to go along with 7 other chairlifts and 2 mighty-mites. The terrain at Sunrise, however, is less challenging, composed of primarily blue rated trails.

For 2009, I have yet to get a ski day in, but apparently I’m one of the few, as Snowbowl has reached capacity 4 times already, requiring them to turn away would-be skiers. FYI, Snowbowl offers free skiing on your birthday. Mine happens to be next week…you’ll never guess where I’ll be.

If you are considering a ski trip/weekend, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I own a rather large cabin in Pinetop that makes an excellent launching point for the family that skis together. Our home offers 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths and 3000 square feet or fairly luxurious living conditions. Why am I mentioning our home? Because it is available for rent on a nightly basis. If you click through, you’ll see all of the photos and description of the home. Plus, you’ll see the calendar of availability, and that we charge $250/night plus $150 cleaning fee per visit. For a home that sleeps 12, that’s not too bad. In fact, it’s a serious bargain.

You can’t see the calendar from December, but it was essentially rented every night. Currently, you may notice, however, it’s not very booked during the week, and here’s where you come in. If you are reading this, and mention that you found out about the cabin via my blog in your reservation request (sorry, there isn’t a promo code field), I’ll cut the nightly rate in half for any week night you book. For any weekend night, I’ll cut $50/night off. Sorry, I can’t do anything about the cleaning fee, as that is my hard cost to clean up after 12 folks sleeping in 8 beds.

We don’t mind multiple families sharing the cost/house. In fact, that’s why every bedroom has it’s own private bath. Plus, with the money you save, you can easily afford to take a private lesson. Or maybe even learn to snowboard (just don’t ask me to try snowboarding, I like being on my feet whole day).

Photo credit: thanasim25

Winter Sucks, unless you live in Phoenix

Steve Belt — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:02:01 +0000

From my high school days, I only have a handful of friends I keep in touch with. Part of that has to do with graduating over 20 years ago, and much of that has to do with having immediately moved from Oregon to Arizona upon graduation. It’s tough to keep in touch with people from 1200 miles away.

The internet has helped close the distance, and thanks to Classmates.com, I’ve reconnected with many of my former classmates. If you are looking for an old classmate, and can’t find them on Facebook, perhaps Classmates.com will work.

At any rate, one of my high school buddies went into the military after high school and recently retired. He has subsequently taken a job or contract or some other quasi-secret role in Kuwait and is enjoying desert life over seas. Almost daily he sends me (and who knows how many other folks, as we are all blind copied) jokes, videos, and the occasional update about life in Kuwait. Today he sent this video, which I found amusing:

As you watch this, those in Phoenix can take heart that this will never, ever happen to them in Phoenix. It might happen to you when traveling, but it will never happen here. And those of you that don’t live in Phoenix…well, this is reason #1037 why Phoenix is a great place to live.

This post is for you Tom. Thanks for being such a good friend.

Real Estate’s Biggest Loser

Steve Belt — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:50:58 +0000

Phoenix Real Estate Blogging Godfather Jay Thompson recently succumbed to my nagging and has created the Real Estate’s Biggest Loser Challenge. The title is dutifully misleading, as he isn’t looking for the worst real estate agent, or the agent that is the biggest waste of air and natural resources, but instead he is looking for the person (and they don’t need to be a real estate agent) that will take on the dubious task of losing the most weight.

That’s right, a weight loss challenge. I feel somewhat to blame, as I know Jay used to be an avid cyclist. However, for as long as I’ve known him he has yet to accept a single invite to go for a ride. These invites most often occur via Twitter, intermixed with reports on my latest ride/race/bike happening. And FYI, if you aren’t following me on Twitter, this is yet another poke to give it a shot. I promise I won’t bite. I might nag a tiny bit, however.

My plan

Personally, I have about 15 pounds I would love to lose. Since turning 25 I’ve been a bit over 200 lbs. Never higher than 218 lbs, but never lower than 205 either. For the last 8 years, cycling has been my primary solution to stay in this range, but I pretty much eat whatever the heck I want, figuring 5 or 6 hours on the bike each week will cure my sins.

For the next 2 months, I’m going to get serious about my diet and kick up my exercising a tad. Today I tried a non-fat, no-whip at Starbucks. It was fine, but I think I’m just going to go all the way to a drip. Heck, I’ll save $2/day at the same time. The social aspect of Starbucks is still too compelling to give it up completely, so a drip it will be. And french fries are now out. 100% gone. If I can work in a salad, that would be nice.

On the exercising front, between cycling and Ninjitsu (martial arts), I’m already working out 4 days a week, but Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday are currently free. I’ve decided Thursday nights I’ll be setting up my road bike on my trainer and spinning for at least 30 minutes. Spinning on a trainer is extremely boring and past attempts resulted in 30 minutes as my meantime to boredom. Given the short challenge, it’s 30 minutes for just 8 Thursdays. I’m going to watch The Office anyway, it might as well be on the trainer.

In the spirit of full disclosure, this morning I weighed in at 214 lbs. That’s about 3 lbs lower than I was in July, which I attribute to a heavier training schedule for the Tour de Tucson.

How the challenge works

If you might be interested in the challenge, here’s a rundown on the details:

Weigh in is Friday, December 5, 2008.
Challenge ends: February 1, 2009.
Winner: By percentage loss, who lost the most weight.
Prize: Winner gets to designate the charity in which each loser contributes $50.

The biggest winner: One lucky charity along with every person that joins the challenge.

My goal: Get below 210 lbs. That’s a 2% loss.
My charity: Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Finally, because at least half of the fun will be tracking our progress, I created a wiki for participants to track and smack: You can find the wiki here: rebiggestloser.pbwiki.com. It’s free to join/use the wiki and should add even more fun to the challenge. Of course, there’s no substitute for a little smack on Twitter, and I’ve started using the hashtag #rebiggestloser, for tracking purposes.

I Voted Today

Steve Belt — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:13:36 +0000

I voted today. I chose. I stood up and was counted. I took part in the Democratic process.

Tomorrow, regardless of who wins or loses, I’ll work to support those elected officials. A city, a county, a state, and a country united will make this country strong, and more than any other time in my adult life, we need a strong united country.

Please vote. Please be counted. I read we may have as high as 80% turn out in Maricopa County. That’s awesome, but we can do better.

Scottsdale & Tempe among most bicycle friendly cities in US

Steve Belt — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:51:14 +0000

The League of American Bicyclists has a Bicycle Friendly America Program to help businesses and communities promote safe cycling, and toward that end, they rank the most friendly states and cities in America. The state of Arizona ranks 3rd in the nation:

Arizona is one of the few to promote protection of cyclists through a 3-foot minimum passing law, and was one of the early adopters of a bike-friendly rumble strip policy. The state has also taken a leading role by including increasing bicycle trips in their statewide carbon emission reduction plan.

The cities of Scottsdale and Tempe each earned a Silver star for being particularly bicycle friendly thanks to the vast bicycle lane/path networks and promoting the use of cycling as an alternative to commuting. As many of my readers know, I’m an avid cyclist, and while I personally favor the mountain bike, this time of year is road bike season for me, as I train for the annual El Tour de Tucson (scheduled for November 22, 2008 this year). This 109 mile ride (not race) is such a great event to be a part of, that I leave the safety of the dirt and mix it up with the cars for a couple of months each year. This year my personal goal is to be a gold finisher, and finish in under 6 hours.

Of course, I should note that Tucson garners a Gold star as an exceptionally bicycle friendly city. Honestly, Tucson really does rock for cycling. As many know, Lance Armstrong called the city home for a while each year to train by riding the 30 mile climb up Mount Lemmon. He didn’t ignore Scottsdale, either, spending a day or two here at the Scottsdale Princess resort, and riding to Bartlett Lake and back.

FYI, Dru Bloomfield and I were chatting recently about showing property while riding a bicycle. I have never had a client suggest a cycling tour to look at homes, but I would absolutely love the day, morning, afternoon, hour, whatever, spent riding from home to home.

Fair Housing Laws: Understanding Protected Classes

Steve Belt — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:15:59 +0000

I recently saw the following ad on craigslist:

$250 Gay man looking for room to rent

51 y.o. gay man looking for a cheap room to rent.I can clean your place and pay $250. a month. I do not smoke,drink, or do any drugs.My 10 y.o. Daughter stays with me on the weekends.I need to rent from a gay man or woman…

It goes on further, with contact information, credit status, vehicle status, etc., but none of that was important to this post, so I clipped it.

Now, getting over the fact that the ad initially appears to be selling a gay man for $250, rather than the gay man offering to PAY $250 to rent a room from either a gay man or woman, I thought the ad would also serve as a nice launching point to talk a little about fair housing laws.

Fair housing law protects a number of classes from being discriminated against. More specifically:

To refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer, or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin.

Some states have enacted laws to protect against sexual orientation, however, Arizona is not currently one of them. Tucson enacted a law to protect against sexual orientation, however, to my knowledge it is the only city in Arizona with specific sexual orientation protection, and thus Phoenix and Scottsdale are not protected.

What does that mean? It means a landlord or property owner can refuse to rent or sell their home to someone that they learn is gay. Sad, but true. If you are renting a home from me, I can ask you if you are gay, and I can pass that information along to my client. If they chose not to rent to you under that basis, sadly, you would not be protected.

As a matter of general course, I consider myself to be fairly conservative, but with regard to sexual preference, I don’t believe, even by the smallest margin, that it is a choice. Some people do believe sexual orientation is a choice. Or, if not a choice, that same gender preferences should at least be suppressed. I don’t think that way, and if it came to siding with a tenant prospect or my landlord client, I would attempt to excuse myself from the transaction, and ask for my immediate release from the listing. The landlord may not grant it to me, but I would ask. Fortunately, while I have rented homes to gay couples, I’ve not had a landlord raise sexual preference as an issue. I sincerely hope this is a trend that never ends.

Getting back to this craigslist ad and fair housing, I should point out two important facts. First, because sexual orientation is NOT a protected class, it is completely fine to advertise your desire to sell or rent only to someone of a specific sexual orientation. And second, because the person advertising is presumed NOT to be a real estate professional, their advertisement does not need to adhere to fair housing law. Fair housing law only applies to real estate professionals.

As a general rule, individuals are allowed to discriminate on whatever they wish to, except under certain circumstances. An individual, that is not represented by a real estate professional, can decide that brunettes are not allowed; that people over 6’2″ tall are not allowed; or that lawyers are not allowed. They can decide that married couples with kids are not allowed; that an unmarried mother is not allowed; or even that jewish people are not allowed. Really, there are no limits as to the basis that individual owners can decide to choose a tenant or buyer for their property.

In the cases where there is a real estate professional involved in the transaction, fair housing protections are in place, and the protected classes of race, color, religion, gender, familiar status (which means are you single or married), and national origin cannot be the basis for which a denial to sell or rent a property is made.

The unofficial end of summer in Phoenix

Steve Belt — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:24:48 +0000

I moved to the Phoenix area in 1986 to attend Arizona State University and despite several attempts to the contrary, have lived here ever since. Over the years I’ve noticed an almost stunning trend: we can kiss goodbye to 100+ degree days after September 15. And sure enough, this year appears it will be holding true to that trend.

It was windy this morning, an odd thing for a day in Phoenix. Riding the wind you can almost hear the message that the season has changed. This week may be the last week of the year you feel comfortable swimming in your pool. You won’t need a jacket or a sweater, for sure, however the age-old jeans or shorts question will start to come into play.

I’m strongly considering an early evening bike ride tonight, and for 6 or 7 months now, starting my weekend rides at 6am will no longer be essential. For many, the weather, and everything we can do outdoors because of it, is why we live in Phoenix. Enjoy paradise…I know I will.

Navigating school zones throughout the Phoenix area

Steve Belt — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:07:31 +0000

With school now back in session around Phoenix, it’s a good time to get a quick review of the school zone traffic laws in Arizona, since Arizona treats school zones differently than most states.

The school zones I’ll describe today, look something like this when you approach them:

These school zones are temporary, by which I mean, they are only a school zone while those signs are in the road. The first sign indicates the start of the zone and naturally the second sign indicates the conclusion. The third sign, refers to the start of the zone for the oncoming cars, and can be ignored. Within the zone the speed limit is a strict 15 mph. You can and will get a speeding ticket (for double the “normal” fine) for doing 16 mph in an Arizona school zone. Arizona may fund its schools poorly, but has perhaps the nation’s strictest school zones, taking a child’s life very seriously. To my knowledge, no child has ever been killed while within the (relative) safety of a school zone. (I was told this by a police officer once. I attempted to verify it today, but could find no reference to either the lack of fatalities or actual fatalities.). If it’s true there have been no fatalities, that’s a record I’d like to see continue indefinitely.

School zones signed in this way always end at a crosswalk. Upon driving past the crosswalk you can resume the regular posted speed, even though oncoming traffic is still in their zone.

As you travel through a school zone, if there are more than one traffic lanes in your direction, you cannot pass or overtake another car in an adjacent lane. That’s what the “No Passing” refers to on the sign. Thus, if you enter the zone at 15 mph and the adjacent car is doing 10 mph you cannot overtake and pass that car. Passing is defined as your front bumper going beyond the other car’s rear bumper or your rear bumper moving forward beyond the other car’s front bumper. Basically, you can jockey side by side, but don’t move fully ahead or attempt to overtake.

As you approach the crosswalk, if there is a child in any portion of the crosswalk, you must stop and allow the child to finish crossing. It doesn’t matter where they are (for example five lanes away, on a six lane divide road), you must stop. During prime crossing times, most crosswalks will also have an adult crossing guard (the person that set the signs in the road) and any time the crossing guard has their stop sign up, in the crosswalk, you must stop, regardless of traffic lights, pedestrians, etc. I’ve seen crossing guards literally bang on the fenders and hoods of motorists that are not paying attention, and doubtless there are many children that owe their lives to the work our crossing guards perform each and every day.

Let’s all continue to be safe and courteous around school zones this year, and give our children the extra few seconds they need to cross the street safely.