The Phoenix Area Foreclosure Experts

This bank owned REO went fast in Gilbert

Two days on the market, four offers, and a bidding contest to determine the winner.  That describes this 1,842 sq ft house built by Trend homes in 2000. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a two-car garage, and a nicely manicured 7,700 sq ft lot.  Several things make this home attractive: the elevation, neighborhood, new carpet, nice custom paint job, and closeness to the loop 202 freeway.  In fact, my client and I could only see one thing wrong with the house: there appeared to be some minor water damage as evidenced by holes cut in the drywall near some water pipes.

Here are the financials on this house:

• Bought in December of 2005 for $297,000
• taken back by the bank in October of 2008 for $280,000
• listed 

on October 23, 2008 for $159,900

At $87 per-sq ft, the bank sent a "multiple offer form" for all the potential buyers to sign.  The standard procedure is for all the interested buyers to submit their "highest and best offers" within two business days.  It's hard to say what a "top value" would be for a house like this in today's market.  My guess is that the eventual winner will pay in the high "$160,000 range" for this house.

 

 

$76 per-sq ft at Power and Ray Roads

$76 per square foot in Gilbert Caught my clients eye. This house:

• was built by William Lyon in 2004
• has 2,159 sq ft with three bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, and a two-car garage
• has community pool with a low HOA fee of $53 per month

It looked a lot better on the outside then it did on the inside. We expected the house to need paint and carpet, but the house had virtually no upgrades. There was linoleum on the kitchen floor, laundry room, and all bathrooms.The master bathroom not only had one sink, but it had a one sink vanity. In other words, even though the master bathroom was rather large, there was only room for one person in front of the mirror at a time.   There was so much room in the master bathroom it looked like you could put a recliner in it. Builders shouldn't allow buyers to "downgrade" a house this cheaply.

Here are the financials:

• bought on August 11, 2006 for $325,000
• listed on May 6, 2008 for $280,000
• lowered over a five-month period until it reached the current price of $165,000

However, this house  is a short sale without a bank approved price. If a bank representative actually saw it,  there would probably be no problem selling it for $165,000 (or less).

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What does it take to sell a Mesa house in four days?

It's all about the price, right? This house was listed for $250,000 on June 9, 2008. Over three months it dropped to $210,000 as it became a short sale.  When nobody would buy it, the bank took it back at the trustee's sale for $191,000. It features:

* 1,751 sq ft on a 7,400 sq ft lot and was built in 1998
* three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a two-car garage
* heated pebble tec pool with a waterfall

As the new owner of the house, the bank listed it for $165,000. Two full price offers came in on the first two days. The final sales price will not be available until it closes escrow, but at the listed price that equals $94 per-sq ft in a good Mesa neighborhood.  Here are the pictures:

What kind of Scottsdale home goes under contract in 10 days?

Well technically, it was kind of under contract in about four days.

But it took awhile to sort out the details because there were so many offers on it. Here are the vital stats:

• 2,714 sq ft with four bedrooms and three bathrooms
• built in 1994 on a 15,000 sq ft corner lot
• very nice pool
• taken back by the bank for $675,000 at the trustee sale in August of 2008
• listed for $370,000 on August 29, 2008
• under contract for $410,000 on September 10, 2008
• sold price of $151 per-sq ft in a city that is currently averaging $200 per-sq ft

Here are the pictures:

  

Wall Street not slowing real estate market?

This article appeared in Realty Times today.  Rather than try to give a synopsis of the article, I copied and pasted the whole thing right here.  I want to give credit to Kenneth R. Harney for writing the entire article.  What do you think about his viewpoint?

"The panic and fear that have been shaking Wall Street aren't translating into negative numbers for real estate -- in fact, it's been the reverse.

While the Dow Jones index peeled off a record fourteen hundred points in a matter of days, the latest pending home sales index was moving in the opposite direction -- up strongly to its highest level in more than a year.

Pending sales jumped by 7.4 percent in the latest month, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Click below to continue:

Cities with highest % of sales that are foreclosures - Top 5 list

Yesterday I posted on the cities whose "active" listings contained the highest percentage of "foreclosure-type" properties in the Arizona Regional MLS. Foreclosure-type homes are defined in the MLS as "lender owned properties," "lender approval required", or "short sale approval required."

Here are the top 5 cities whose "sales" contain the highest percentage of foreclosure-type properties. These figures contain only single family residences and would be read as " 59.3% of all sales in Queen Creek were foreclosure-type" properties:"

1. Queen Creek -- 59.3%
2. Town of Maricopa -- 55.7%
3. Glendale -- 55.6%
4. Phoenix -- 51.3%
5. Mesa -- 49.4%

The difference between today's and yesterday's list: Queen Creek and Maricopa swapped positions and Mesa replaced Gilbert as the number 5 city.

Source: Arizona Regional MLS

October 2008 - Top 5 cities with foreclosure listings

29.4% of all listings in the Arizona Regional MLS are foreclosure-type listings. Here is a breakdown of the top 5 cities:

1. Town of Maricopa -- 52.2%
2. Queen Creek -- 48.8%
3. Glendale  -- 42.9%
4. Phoenix -- 39.7%
5. Gilbert -- 32.6%

Source: Arizona Regional MLS

Facing Foreclosure.... there's HOPE!

by Craig

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 amended the existing Housing Act to offer a temporary mortgage insurance program called HOPE for Homeowners. or H4H. Homeowners facing difficulty paying their mortgage may be eligible to refinance under a new FHA loan. This became effective as of October 1, 2008.

You can go to any blog in the country to hear opinions or overviews or a compressed version of whatever was on talk radio yesterday... but on this blog you get straight from the "US Department of Housing and Urban Development". This letter is from the Assistant Secretary of Housing with all the boring jargon in it. Open and print for your records - that's why you come back to this blog often to get real info from the source rather than fluffy opinions. 

It is 13 pages so you can read till you get bored or pick and choose what parts fit your situation or if you are really left brain  - digest it, highlight it and diagram it. 

Download hope_letter.pdf

Price gap between "normal" sales and "foreclosure-type" sales largest in Scottsdale and smallest in Town of Maricopa

A "normal" sale in Scottsdale cost a buyer an average of $52 more per-sq ft than a "foreclosure-type" sale during the 3-month period from July-September 2008. The average size home was 2,391 sq ft, making the difference in "total dollars paid" equal to $124,332 (2,391 sq ft X $52). This is currently the largest gap in any of the major cities in the Metro Phoenix Area.

On the other side of the price spectrum -- at $9 per sq ft -- the Town of Maricopa had the smallest gap between "normal" and foreclosure-type" sales. The average size home was 2,239 sq ft, making the difference in "total dollars paid" equal to $20,151 (2,239 sq ft X $9).

Foreclosure-type listings are defined in the MLS as "lender owned properties," "lender approval required", or "short sale approval required." Click here for a discussion on why square footage is a better comparison than total dollars paid.

During the July-September period, 26.1% of all homes sold in Scottsdale were foreclosure-type listings. In contrast, 59.1% of all homes sold in Maricopa were foreclosure-type homes.

It seems that bargain hunters have no problem swooping in on the Town of Maricopa. However, Scottsdale buyers appear to be less than half as likely to buy a foreclosure.

Price gap decreases between "normal" and "foreclosure-type" sales

The price difference between "normal" and "foreclosure-type" sales was at it's lowest level in one year for the sales that occurred in September 2008.

Read the chart in this manner:

• 6,130 homes were sold in the Arizona Regional MLS for September 2008
• the average price per-sq ft of ALL homes was $112 per-sq ft
• for "normal sales," the average home was 1,971 sq ft and sold for $259,301; that equates to $132 per-sq ft
• for "foreclosure-type sales," the average home was 1,951 sq ft and sold for $174,476; that equates to $89 per-sq ft
• there was a $84,825 difference between the price of "normal" and foreclosure-type" sales, with "normal" sale prices being higher
• there was a $42 per=sq ft difference between the "normal" and "foreclosure-type" sales, with "normal" sale prices being higher

What could be the reason for this? One explanation is that many "normal" sellers are starting to realize they can either keep their house listed at a higher amount ... or lower it to compete against the "foreclosure-type" sales. We are clearly seeing "normal" sellers do this. It is very evident when looking at the column depicting "Normal Price." Normal Price is at a several year low (though not fully detailed on this chart).

Information obtained from the Arizona Regional MLS