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home prices

McCormick Ranch Real Estate – Least Distressed Area of Scottsdale

by Dru Bloomfield on January 11, 2009

McCormick Ranch Real Estate

Real Estate Market Distress for Scottdale, Arizona 85258, including McCormick Ranch (Click chart for a larger view)

In reviewing the Cromford Report this morning, I stumbled on the fact that the Scottsdale zip code, 85258, is experiencing the least stress in today’s real estate market. While it’s still in the Caution zone, compared to other areas of Scottsdale and the Phoenix metropolitan area, the area that’s home to McCormick Ranch and also, Gainey Ranch is doing reasonably well.

Approximately 15% of the homes on the market in this area, which is roughly between Indian Bend and Shea, Scottsdale Road and East 106th Street, are either bank-owned or advertised short sales.  These homes are selling at a faster rate and during December 2008, accounted for 36% of the sales.

One very interesting and very unusual aspect I’m seeing in this chart is the price per square foot of short sales.  Typically, normal sale will have a noticeably higher price per square foot, when compared to short and bank-owned sale.  Not so, here.  Even more interesting is that the price per square for solds is higher than those listed, and you will see for normal and bank-owned sales, that the sales price is quite a bit lower than listing price.

Good news is that McCormick Ranch and Gainey Ranch seem to be doing better than most in this tumultuous real estate market.  At the same time, you can see that it’s still a tough market to sell a house in.

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Scottsdale Real Estate Slowdown?

by Dru Bloomfield on December 19, 2008

Scottdale Real Estate Market 12-18-08
credit: Dru Bloomfield – At Home in Scottsdale and Altos Research

In looking through the Altos Research charts for Scottsdale real estate today, you can see we have headed into another downturn in the market over the last several weeks.  The Altos Market Action Index shows slowing in all Scottsdale markets, across all zip codes. 

My suspicion is that many people are focused on the holidays.  At the same time, I’m seeing that many buyers are still very focused on searching through the new listings, keeping track of pricing changes, and asking me to refine their home searches.  While there are not a tremendous number of new homes going on the market during the last couple of weeks of the year, sellers are focused on preparing their homes for listing in January.  Our warm winters and huge events (golf, horses, and cars) attract visitors in droves and these sellers want to be ready.

I believe that after the first of the year, real estate will become a bigger focus for first time buyers and winter visitors / part-time residents.  Why?

  1. Home prices continue to drop.  Sellers (those that are motivated) are listing their homes at more realistic prices.  Foreclosures and short sales are driving home prices down, and have an impact on normal, non-bank involved home sale prices. 
  2. Interest rates are excellent.  Rates dropped to 4.5% briefly for one morning this week and are now back up to the 5% range.  Most lenders are writing about the refinancing boom, but these good rates also help home buyers, too. 
  3. First time home buyer tax credits will expire.  The government has created a tax credit program, that’s really interest-free loan.  The program expires in July 2009, so will provide an additional incentive for first time home buyers who believe it’s a good time to purchase a home.

So, while it looks a little slow now, all that could change fairly quickly during January.  Time will tell.

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