Maricopa County homeowners will begin to receive their latest property valuations in the mail today. Most will see a third straight annual drop in home values.

Residential property values fell an average of 15.2 percent in 2009, according to the latest report from the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office.  Values fell 23 percent in 2008, following a 13 percent drop in 2007.

“It’s still bad but not as bad,” county Assessor Keith Russell said.

Last year, the overall median value of homes in the county fell to $131,700 from $155,300.

Some Valley cities fared better than others. For example, home values in Tempe declined 13.4 percent in 2009, while they dropped 27.3 percent in Tolleson.

County homeowners have yet to see declines in property taxes similar to the drops in property valuations, and they won’t again this year.

Many Phoenix-area municipalities and school districts are facing budget gaps and will likely have to raise property taxes this fall.

Property-tax bills lag valuations by 18 months in Arizona and are based on a complex formula that includes funding for multiple municipalities and school districts. Most property-tax money goes to education.

The tax bill homeowners receive this September will be based on 2008′s valuation. Assessments going out now will be reflected in 2011 tax bills.

To save money, the Assessor’s Office is now printing property valuations on a single sheet of paper that is folded to postcard size for mailing.

County property valuations were previously sent in standard business envelopes that also contained several public-information inserts.

The Assessor’s Office saved 40 percent in printing costs by switching to the single-sheet valuation report.

“We want people to know about the new format for their valuations so they don’t mistake them for something else and throw them away,” Russell said.

If property owners think their valuations are too high or low, they must lodge an appeal with the Assessor’s Office by April 13.

Last year, 20,000 people appealed their real-estate valuations in Maricopa County, double the number of appeals from 2005. About 1.5 million properties were valued by the Maricopa County assessor during 2009.

For more information about your home value, check with www.maricopa.gov

It’s a Good Life!

Stephen & Alice Proski

“Sales are up.” “Sales are down.” “Prices are up.” “Prices are down.” So what is it? Actually all of these statements are true. One our favorite phrases “it depends” sums up what is going on in our current real estate market. Whether sales are up or down or whether prices are up or down, it just depends on what segment of the market you are looking at. The residential market in the Greater Phoenix area is a mixed market of homes. Hopefully the following information will help bring some clarity to the confusing opening statements.

The number of residential sales for August was down to just above 8,000 homes sold in August for a decrease of 11.6% from July Sales. Still this was the fifth consecutive month in a row with sales of homes over 8,000 with three of the five months having sales over 9,000 homes sold.

Lender owned sales have dropped somewhat while on the other hand short sale transactions have increased. This maybe due to the fact the lenders are willing to wait for a homeowner to try and sell their property versus foreclose on the property and take it back and then place it on the market for sale. We are seeing this to more of the trend that banks are following.

In August 2008 there were 357 sales of homes between $50,000 to $99,9999 price range compared to 1,457 homes sold in August 2009 in the same price range. Yes things are looking up.

The home sales median price went up $1,000 in August over July. The median price of $126,000 (Greater Phoenix area) in August is up 9% or $9,000 over the median price of $116,000 in April of this year. Have we already bottomed out?

On the other hand, the median price of $126,000 in August 2009 is down 30% or $59,000 when compared to August 2008 when it was $185,000. So I am confused, are things getting better or getting worse? “It depends.”

Demand for lender owned properties has been hot and the supply for these homes has decreased on the other hand, short sale supply continues to increase. The values of these properties however may decrease as well. If this happens, short sale lenders may further drop the dollar amount they will take on a short sale to get their short sale properties sold. If short sale prices fall far enough, buyers will perceive the purchase of a short sale as a great value and the competition for them will go up, just like it did on lender owned properties.

Lender owned property sales has dropped as a percentage of the total number of monthly sales for the fifth month in a row (April thru August). In March, 2 out of 3 sales were lender owned while in August 1 out of 2 sales was lender owned. The number of short sales closings went up every month so far this year.

So we are seeing inventory declining and sales going up in most cases but why is there still no relief in site? Our guess is we appear to be stabilizing the market somewhat and by doing so, we should start to see some appreciation of values on recent sales. If whatever goes up, must come down, hopefully we’ve been down long enough and its time to go up again.

Listing supplies are down because as stated above, buyers perceived the purchase of lender owned properties as a great value. The Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service shows residential sales for the last 6 months (March thru August) at 51,913 or 8,652 per month. The home sales median price for this time period was $121,733. The last 6 month period in which there were more sales was June 2005 thru November 2005 at the peak of our real estate frenzy which there were 54,286 or 9,048 sales per month. The home sales median price at that time was $254,833.

So have things gotten better or worse, well again it depends. If you purchased a home at the top of our market in 2005 you have probably seen a dramatic decline in its overall value because of the bank owned and short sales properties that have flooded the market.

The majority of sellers out there are people who must sell because of some sort of distress. They lost their job; the value of their home has dropped; their mortgage exceeds the value of the home; their interest rates have climbed to an unaffordable payment and the list goes on as to the many reasons why most sellers have some form of distress going on and that is why they are trying to sell their home.

We have lived in the same community for the past 8 years and during the last 18 months the only homes that have sold are the distressed bank owned or short sales properties. A normal seller, ones without any distress going on seem to not have a chance these days. Again, because buyers are looking for the perceived deals and they seem to only focus on short sale and bank owned properties. Hopefully by years end or the first quarter of 2010 the shift will occur and sales will increase across the board within all price ranges and the stabilization we are seeing now will turn into a market increase and the world will be a better place to live in. Okay, sometimes you have to dream.

Until next post, have a good one,

Life is Good!

Stephen and Alice

p.s. Don’t forget to head over and take a look at our home away from home: www.myhomeinscottsdale.com website for anything you need related to buying or selling your home! Enjoy.

Our local real estate market has been heating up since the beginning of the year. We are seeing multi buyers trying to obtain the same houses time and time again. Inventory has been declining and prices seem to be holding firm. The number of bank owned or foreclosed homes has declined significantly and in prices under $300,000.00 we are seeing more of a Sellers market versus a Buyers market.

Investors have returned to pick-up great deals and before you know it, we may have already recovered from a down real estate market.

Despite all the real estate rescue plans that have been implemented by the U.S. Government, the one demographic that seems to have been overlooked at this time has been the higher-priced loans.

First of all, the higher priced jumbo loans do not qualify for the mortgage loan modification programs that were implemented by President Obama. If homeowners try to refinance those loans they can’t get today’s low interest rates. With newly cautious lenders warier about who they lend to, just to sell a home that costs $700,000.00 or more these days is a challenge.

Our luxury home inventory is steadily climbing because Buyers can not get the same loan programs from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In many cases, finding a Buyer who can get financing takes far longer than the lower-priced homes, because banks want as much as 30% down with six months of mortgage payments in reserve.

The result is a housing market in which sales and purchases of higher priced homes have come almost to a standstill and it’s a predicament that could undermine the housing recovery throughout the United States. Move up Buyers, (homeowners who want to buy larger, pricier homes) are getting locked out by lack of financing. Too many unsold homes in the upper tier of the market also can push down prices for homes in the mid-price range.

To bring this into perspective, currently we have about a 1 month supply of inventory for homes that are priced under $200,000.00.On the other hand homes that are priced above $1,000,000.00 in the metro Phoenix area has about a 45 month supply.

Loans up to $417,000.00 are considered “conforming “ and can be sold to companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who also guarantee them when they resell those mortgages to investors. But after that, the situation is more complex.

The National Association of Realtors continue to press Congress and the Obama administration to increase the jumbo loan limits that Fannie and Freddie will guarantee and make them permanent. If this occurs, it would help the luxury home market start to rebound and provide opportunities for both home buyers and sellers in every area of the real estate market not just the lower priced range homes.

Unless you have cash to buy a luxury home, (not too many people these days has a truck load of money lying around), it is difficult trying to obtain jumbo loans to purchase a home, thus clogging up the market even further.

We know that this only affects a small percentage of the population when it comes to buying and selling real estate, but we feel that if our economy is going to recover soon, the luxury real estate market needs a jumpstart otherwise, things could begin to look worse instead of getter better.

Until next post, have a good one,

Life is Good!

Stephen and Alice

p.s. Don’t forget to head over and take a look at our home away from home: www.myhomeinscottsdale.com website for anything you need related to buying or selling your home! Enjoy