Great News for First-time Homebuyers! Maricopa County wants to help you with $$$!

Just a few years ago it seemed almost impossible for first time homebuyers to get into a home of their own. But, times have changed. Not only is it now a buyer's market with plenty of homes to choose from, but Maricopa County has a bond program with $50,000,000 just released for its First Time Homebuyer Program. This program is offering first-time homebuyers in Maricopa County a 5% downpayment grant as well as great 30 year fixed interest rates. For more info call David at 602 763-6363.

Don't let yourself be zillowed

An interesting article in Realty Times talks about being "zillowed".

Realty Times: The Seller's Been 'Zillowed'

By Blanche Evans, Realty Times Columnist

A home seller tells Realty Times he is contemplating contacting an attorney over losing a sale he blames on Zillow's estimate of his home.

Dear Blanche:
I read your article about zillow.com and would like see your advice on my situation. We started selling our house but potential buyers showed us a Zillow.com price estimation for our house and told us that our selling price was not realistic. As a result of this we had to take our house from the market. The estimation by zillow.com is $500,000.00 less than ssessed value. Home facts are incorrect and estimated value is $600,000 lower than the value of the similar house next door built by the same uilder a year earlier than ours. Even zillow's own data shows that omparable nearby houses were sold for $521.00 per sq. foot on average, when their estimation for our house is only $364.00 per sq. foot. I tried to contact zillow.com, but their automatic response stated that they are not staffed to address individual issues.
They have enough staff to cause great damage, but not enough staff to fix it! Grossly inaccurate and very damaging information from zillow.com put our family in a very difficult financial position. I am sure that there are other people in similar situation. I seek your advise on what can I do. - Alex

Realty Times responds:

Congratulations, Alex, you've been zillowed! Zillowed is a playful term
which means buyers can find out what your home is worth without talking to a professional Realtor or appraiser. To sellers, of course, being zillowed means you are likely getting screwed.

Sellers like you are being swept up in a maelstrom where you no longer have control over the marketing of your home to the public. Like the credit reporting bureaus can ruin your credit with inaccurate data, new companies posting public housing data have immunity from the esponsibility of potentially harming individuals.
Get ready - it's only going to get worse before it gets better. Companies like zipRealty are gleefully announcing that they will post reviews of your home for all to see. Great for buyers, bad for you. Pretty soon there will be no reason to list your home at all because sellers don't have any rights anymore. You might as well light a match to it when you're ready to move. Funny, companies like Experian, zipRealty and zillow just don't think about the people as individuals; they only want to empower the "other side," whatever that side is. Consequently, as you found, zillow didn't bother including some sort of help for individuals who wish
to contest their zestimates. Neither did Experian until it was forced to by the government. So your only choice is to fight back.

Let's start with some little-known facts. Realtors (agents who are members of the National Association of Realtors) list and sell homes within 99 percent accuracy, according to a recent report by the NAR. While that may seem a self-serving statistic, it's easy enough to check in your local MLS. Even if homes sell within 95 percent of
listing price, that's still pretty good compared to zillow's zestimates.
Zillow.com admitted to BusinessWeek in February 2006 during its much-publicized launch that its "estimates are typically on target, falling within 10 percent of the actual home-sale prices 62 percent of the time."
I'm sorry, but a dismal accuracy rate like that should come with a stern warning: "Use of this zestimate in a real negotiation could prevent you from buying or selling the home you want."

The internet is an amazing source of information -knowing what information is
valid, how to cull the invalid information from the valid information and then
how to interpret that information - for now that still needs a human.

To read the full article go to:

http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20060831_zillowed.htm

Phoenix #1 Spot for Relocation

A new study by The Retirement Solutions Foundation ranked Phoenix as the #1 Relocation Destination. Here is an excerpt describing how they came to that conclusion.

Six Great Relocation Destinations
Below we've listed six metropolitan areas in the U.S. that offer affordable homes and job opportunities that are also great places to live. Feel free to click on each destination or read the introduction as to how we chose the places (we won't be offended if you don't.)
Phoenix, AZOrlando, FLCamden Metro Area, NJW. Palm Beach, FLMadison, WIFort Meyers, FL
How the Places Were Picked:
As I did when researching destinations for "The Cost-Conscious Homebuyer's Guide," I chose destinations after researching the quality of life, affordability and the destination's solid economic outlook. Here's my methodology:
First: Solid Economy: We looked at the top 50 ratings in Inc. magazine's "Best Places 2005," which measured metropolitan areas both by short and long-term job growth. Inc.'s researchers also measured how much employment growth has been spread over a range of industries. Why does this matter? The same way you need to diversify among many different investments when you save for retirement, you need to choose a home destination that's in a "diverse economy;" in other words, one that's not dependent on one industry. Remember, even if you can manage to keep your job in a region that's in a downturn, you're less likely to find a home buyer if there's a short "supply of buyers" in that region as result.
Second: Optimistic outlook is corroborated by other institutions. The location also had to rank among the Milken Institute's 2005 top 50 "best-performing cities, which measures "the top economic performance" and "creating the most jobs in the nation."
Third: Consistently solid economic outlook. We even went further and eliminated those regions that didn't maintain their top-50 status from year to year in both the Inc. and Milken rankings. Even areas that appear to be diversified can take sudden downturns: Atlanta, for example, fell from number six in Inc.'s 2004 rankings to number 84, due to a slump in retail, manufacturing and business services.
Fourth: Affordable places to live: We eliminated those regions in the top 50 whose median home price is more than $300,000 (the source is the National Association of Realtors' second quarter 2006 figures unless otherwise specified). Again, it's consistent with our investment philosophy of picking "home investments" that are going to be attractive to the next buyer. Why move to a place where housing is already unaffordable if the end goal is to sell it to someone else?
Fifth—and Actually First—Nice Places to Live: Who wants to live in an affordable place with plenty of jobs if the place is in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing to do? You guessed it—your home destination is got to be one that others flock to. As I did when researching The Cost-Conscious Homebuyer's Guide, I turned to the time-honored destination authority: Places Rated Almanac (this time it was Special Millennium Edition) to cherry-pick the quality-of-life winners. In the rankings, author David Savageau looks at such features as transportation, education, climate, recreation and arts among the nation's 354 metro areas. To make our cut, these destinations had to be among Places Rated's top 100 areas. Therefore, our rankings are based on which of the Inc. 50 are good "long-term investments" and are affordable—and then ranked in order of their ranking in Places Rated.
Be prepared to be surprised when you read our findings—trust me, I was. Three of our six picks are in Florida—a state you may have dismissed as an election-rigged hurricane-bound retiree destination. The sunshine state offers tremendous home and job opportunities—hurry up before some Saudi Prince beats you to it.
And the winners are
Number 1: Phoenix, AZInc. Rank: 16/ Milken Rank: 15/ Median Home Price: $268,300/ Places Rated Rank: 10
In addition to the Inc. and Milken rankings, Entrepreneur Magazine recently ranked Phoenix number one in its top 20 large cities for entrepreneurs; the Phoenix-Mesa area reported more than 12,000 startups in 2005 alone. The draw? Affordable real estate attracts workers, especially from obscenely overpriced California. The region also has an unusually large number of organizations devoted to helping small business. Where to get more info: www.phoenix.gov.

Some great news. And, having relocated here ourselves we can definately agree that the Phoenix area is a really exciting place to be a part of.

Say hello to the 50 Year Mortgage - not just for the First Time Buyer

With the median price going from high to higher the newest answer to making home ownership affordable is the 50 year mortgage. It was only a matter of time. As car prices went from $15,000 to $30,000 +++ we saw car loans grow longer and longer so that people could afford the monthly payments. As housing prices have grown and grown it makes sense that the time for this new baby has come.

What is the difference between the 50 year mortgage and the conventional 30 year that has been the standard for eons? According to Mike Langs, Senior Vice President of Arizona Mortgage Specialists, they are very similar - the differences really are just the term of the loan and typically a somewhat higher interest rate with the longer term.

Although young first time homeowners may seem the obvious choice for this loan Mike pointed out a less obvious candidate - soon to be retirees. Lenders cannot discriminate because of age! With a savings of between $100 - $200.00 per month with these new loans it might make sense for baby boomers to look into one of these (before they retire) and take their savings to lunch, on vacation, to the golf course - or just to the gas pump.

Welcome to the 50 year mortgage - anything that can allow people to buy and maintain home ownership is a good thing.


Written by David Thomas

Mike Langs can be reached at (480) 905-0888.

Calling all Phoenicians - Your vote is needed - or we may end up as Marvin Gardens!

Help! It was reported today in the Arizona Republic that we all need to vote! What is this pressing matter? Until recently Phoenix was dead LAST in the standings in Hasbro's competition for its new Monopoly game.

Hasbro Inc. will debut a Here & Now Edition of its classic game this
summer, with real cities and their attractions substituting for fictional
streets. The catch is that cities with the most votes will be in the high-rent
districts, while those with the least support will be relegated to Mediterranean
Avenue.

Phoenix lurched from last place to 19th out of 22 cities after
the convention bureau sent an e-mail blast to its 1,200 members and staff on
Tuesday imploring them to vote every day through the May 12 deadline.

Wednesday, Phoenix surpassed Cleveland, Dallas and Nashville and was
"closing the gap on Atlanta," staff member Brett Brooks said.

Phoenix had nearly 132,000 votes, with Camelback Mountain its favorite landmark.

"I think we're actually creating some momentum to move Phoenix into Park
Place status," spokesman Doug MacKenzie added. "The word is spreading. We're
going to make it to the top. We're not Marvin Gardens."

So, let your fingers fly you over to Hasbro's site at http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/ and vote!

Are prices dropping?

There is a lot of concern out there about real estate prices. People are worried that after last year's great gain in real estate values in the Phoenix metropolitan area, that we are now going to see prices drop. Certainly, if you look at the "Price Changes" report on the MLS on any given day you will see many properties that have reduced their prices. I have looked at these changes to get a feel for what is happening. A very un-scientific process that I use is to randomly pick a property on the list and take a look at the price of the home and the market.

Today I picked a home in Scottsdale. This home just dropped its price from $515,000 to $499,000. A pretty substantial drop, yes? Well, while this home has dropped its price it is still listed at $24.00 more per square foot than a comparable home that recently sold in the same neighborhood.

Time and time again I have seen this same scenario play out. The seller convinces himself that this is Spring, 2005 and that they should get more money for their home than anyone else in the neighborhood. The seller puts their home on the market and it sits there doing nothing. After a few weeks the seller reluctantly lowers the price but usually to a level that is still above market value. The property sits and the listing gets old. A few more weeks go by - the seller is now 'anxious and will look at all offers' yet, while they may lower their price a few more dollars they have probably not yet hit the level that would make them competitively priced.

It is important in these times to take a long hard look at what is really going on. Although a customer may look at a property and see that the price has been lowered on multiple occasions, that does not necessarily mean that they are now looking at a bargain. Over the past few months I have found that the vast majority of price reductions have just brought the homes to the price that they should have been at to begin with.

Maricopa County movin' on up millionaire list

In today's Arizona Republic it was reported that we are getting richer!

Maricopa County movin' on up millionaire list: "Maricopa County ranks fourth in the United States in the number of millionaire households. It counts 106,210, or roughly 8.2 percent of all households, as having $1 million-plus in net worth. Orange County counts 113,299 households and took the third spot.

In 2000, Maricopa County ranked sixth in the survey.

One reason for the county's upward movement is due to the overall population boom. There are also plenty of retirees who've made their fortunes elsewhere, or at least have saved and invested wisely and relocated to Arizona to settle into the twilight years of warm weather and golf."

Coupling that with all of the new jobs that are coming to the Valley it seems like sunny skies are here for a while.