Arizona job growth modest gains

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

Arizona job growth seen by economists as modest

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services East Valley Tribune |
Arizona job

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A top state economist predicted Friday modest growth in jobs for the balance of this year and the next.Aruna Murthy of the state Department of Administration figures Arizona will add 47,100 jobs this year and another 55,800 in 2013. That translates out to 2 percent for 2012 and 2.3 percent for the coming year.

That compares with just 1 percent job growth last year. And the numbers were running in the negative 8 percent range in 2009.

One of the biggest gainers overall is going to be the construction industry, which Murthy figured should see a double-digit growth rate over the two years. But she cautioned that there is really less to that number than it appears. Continue reading →

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Home prices in Phoenix area up 20 percent

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

Home Prices by Catherine Reagor – Apr. 26, 2012 11:36 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com

 Phoenix housing prices up 20%         Home prices are surging in metro Phoenix, climbing 8 percent in March alone and 20 percent in the past 12 months.

The median price of a house in the region climbed to $134,900, according to a new report from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

The home price trend is projected to continue throughout the year, although at a slower pace.

Mike Orr, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory at ASU, doesn’t expect home prices to continue to climb as fast as they did in March over the next few months. But he projects metro Phoenix’s housing appreciation for 2012 to reach 25 percent by September. Continue reading →

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Residential price growth in Phoenix surprises

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

Phoenix Business Journal by David Sydiongco, Phoenix Business Journal

Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2012, 12:05am MST  

 phoenix homes for sale            Phoenix home values are forecasted to experience the largest national gains in 2012, according to a recent report by Zillow.  Latest from The Business Journals  a Seattle-based real estate tracker.

Released Wednesday, Zillow’s report for the first quarter of 2012 predicted Phoenix home appreciation rising 6.5 percent between March 2012 and March 2013, the largest growth amongst the 30 major metros included in the report. Continue reading →

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Phoenix Housing Starts to Rise From Ashes

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

 

Phoenix builders scramble to catch up to demand

Phoenix homes

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     Mike Ripson hasn’t built a home in three years, but he is about to. He has been sitting on one hundred sixty acres of land just outside Phoenix, Arizona, which he intends to divide into 121 one-acre lots

Now’s the time because we’ve been studying the marketplace, and we noticed beginning late last summer, early fall, that for homes priced less than $100,000, the market was becoming very tight,” says Ripson, whose company is celebrating its ten year anniversary this week. Continue reading →

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Phoenix Housing comeback 22% jump in March sales

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

By Garin Groff, Tribune East Valley Tribune

 phoenix housing sales on the rise    Home sales shot up 22.3 percent in March as increasingly confident buyers rushed to snap up houses in the peak buying season.

The increased activity resulted in a modest price hike, which is one of many indicators in recent months that the Valley’s battered housing market is recovering.

This spring’s buying spree is driven by families who prefer to move this time of year and historically low pricing, said Chris Heagerty, the ARMLS communications director.

“Because the housing was so incredibly affordable, people were just buying them like crazy,” she said.

The ARMLS March figures show improvement across the board.

The inventory of homes for sale continued a long decrease, dropping 7.9 percent to 21,863 units. The March numbers are similar to 2003 and 2004, which Heagerty called “the last normal markets.” More than 56,000 homes were listed in November 2009. Continue reading →

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Phoenix Real Estate: Prices Rise for Second Month in a Row

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

phoenix homes for salePhoenix Home Prices continue to Rise

By Brandon Cornett

Between 2008 and 2010, the Phoenix housing market was in the news for all the wrong reasons. It was often lumped together with Las Vegas and most of Southern California, and labeled as ‘ground zero’ for the housing crash. It spawned countless headlines of doom and gloom, like these:

  • “Prices have fallen more than 30 percent in Phoenix” – U.S. News, December 18, 2008
  • “Phoenix Leads U.S. Home Price Decline as Lenders Unload Houses” – Bloomberg News, December 30, 2008
  • “Home prices in Phoenix skidded 33% in October” – The Arizona Republic, December 31, 2008

Today, the Phoenix real estate market is still making headlines, but for totally different reasons. It now appears to be one of the strongest of the major metropolitan areas, in terms of home-price stability. Consider the following:

The Phoenix Real Estate Market Today

Continue reading →

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Phoenix tops Cities with the most new construction

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

Construction starts are a leading indicator of economic activity

 construction in Phoenix up          Thanks to the housing bubble, Phoenix garnered a reputation for dusty abandoned homes and half-built tracts of retail sprawl. Arizona’s biggest city suffered a 55 percent drop in home prices since the 2006 peak and it consistently ranks among the country’s 20 worst cities in terms of foreclosures. Yet a recent rebound in home sales — and more modestly in home prices — has spurred talk of a recovery there.

Turns out that budding rebound extends out into overall construction, too. In 2011, the Phoenix metro area welcomed a 41 percent increase in new construction, totaling $5.3 billion in new starts for both residential and non-residential building projects. Continue reading →

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Arizona jobs outlook expected to rebound

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

Arizona job growth looks good

phoenix job market increases

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     Hiring is expected to increase in several areas of the Arizona economy this year as the recovery picks up momentum and employers gain confidence.

Traditionally strong sectors are poised to add jobs in 2012: private education, health care and transportation, as well as retail and hospitality. Some areas in technology are also hot, and construction jobs are making a small comeback.

Warehouse and distribution centers are expanding and adding workers, which is a harbinger of future economic growth fueled by increased consumer spending.

One such company is MiTek Industries. A bottom in the housing market and the slowly brightening economy helped persuade the maker of construction components to nearly double the size of its Phoenix plant, which is involved in manufacturing and distribution for the Missouri-based company. MiTek also expects to add as many as 40 workers to its 27-person Arizona workforce later this year. Continue reading →

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Investors with Cash Driving Up Home Prices

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

Investors with Cash win out

 Cash invstors out bid buyers      PHOENIX – Home sales are up across the valley. But many families looking for affordable places to live are getting squeezed out as more and more investors move in.

Investors are taking advantage of foreclosed homes and short sales, paying cash. But regular buyers — the ones who need a mortgage — lose out. It’s happening all over the valley.

It’s bad news if you want to buy a home because it is very competitive. But good news for people who are stuck in underwater homes — prices appear to rising fast. Continue reading →

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Rental costs may drive home sales up

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

 By Andrew Scoggin on Rental

Rents on the increase    Home sales could turn out sunnier than expected this spring based on data coming out of the rental market, according to economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Jay Brinkmann, the trade group’s chief economist, said Thursday that apartment owners have raised their rates, in particular large investment trust Equity Residential($57.75 0.09%). That’s coupled with fewer people, roughly 60%, who intend to renew a lease, according to a study by Kingsley Associates.

“This means we might see a spring season better than the numbers are predicting,” Continue reading →

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Phoenix’s housing market shows signs of upturn

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia
 
phoenix housing

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     Phoenix Housing By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY

   The Phoenix housing market is showing signs of improvement, even generating bidding wars among buyers for lower-priced homes.

The area was one of the hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. Prices had fallen 57% from their peak.

Now, “We list a property and, within two or three days, we have multiple offers,” says Keith Krone of Keller Williams Realty in a Phoenix suburb. Continue reading →

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Valley real estate agents have growing optimism for housing market

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

By Garin Groff, Tribune East Valley Tribune |

sales move up

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         A rise in home-buying activity has boosted confidence that real estate agents have in the Valley’s housing market, according to a new industry report.

Agents’ optimism has grown for five months in a row as a result of seeing more buyers and a shrinking number of available homes, said Bob Bemis, CEO of the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service.

The listing gauges confidence every month by surveying agents who have represented a buyer or seller in the past year. The index climbed to 87 points in January, up from a dreary 57 in February 2011. The scale tops out at 100 points. Continue reading →

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Arizona gets $1.6 billion in mortgage fraud settlement

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

by Catherine Reagor – Feb. 9, 2012 09:28 AM
The Republic | azcentral.com

Billions coming to Arizona       Marking a watershed day in the aftermath of the national housing crash, Arizona officials announced a pair of settlements with large banks over allegations of improper lending and foreclosure practices that will result in more than a billion dollars of aid for struggling homeowners.

Arizona’s portion of a nationwide, $26 billion settlement with the country’s five biggest lenders will be $1.6 billion, the third-largest share after hard-hit California and Florida. < ?php the_content('Read on...'); ?>Most of the money in that deal, announced Thursday after negotiations by attorneys general across the country, will be paid out by lenders in the form of principal reductions — cutting the amount of money that certain borrowers are responsible for repaying on their home loans. Lenders will also dedicate part of the funds to reducing other borrowers’ interest payments and will issue $2,000 payments to people who lost homes in improperly managed foreclosures.   Continue reading →

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Phoenix housing shortage by spring

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Ralph & Tricia

Is housing glut over? Experts predict housing shortage by spring

 Phoenix searches for homes   By Garin Groff, Tribune

 | Phoenix Real estate experts predict the Valley’s years-long housing glut is reaching its end and, as early as this spring, could stun home buyers by transforming into a shortage.

The crunch is expected to be more pronounced in the East Valley, where some subdivisions are approaching build-out and other builders are raising prices.

The prediction may seem outlandish given how gloomy real estate news has been for years, said Mike Orr, director of the Arizona State University Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice. Continue reading →

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New stats indicate Arizona’s housing market may have hit bottom

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Ralph & Tricia

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services | Posted: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 12:31 pm

Prices move up

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   It may be just a statistical blip.

But there are indications that the state’s housing market may finally have hit bottom.

On the surface, the new figures Tuesday from the Federal Housing Finance Agency are not good, showing the value of the average home in the state slid another 1.5 percent in the last quarter. That brings the year-over-year decrease to 12 percent.

That means a home valued at $200,000 just a year ago is now worth $24,000 less.

Only Nevada fared worse on an annual basis, with a 12.3 percent decline.

The same trend is playing out even longer term: The typical Arizona home is now valued at just half of what it was five years earlier.

But there are some bright spots in the numbers. Continue reading →

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