The Scottsdale Blog

Foreclosures Affect Neighbors

by John O'Leary

As per the following post, if you have a neighbor who falls behind on their mortgage payments and the bank forecloses on them, it can have a negative affect on the property value of your home.

Foreclosures Reshape Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods riddled with foreclosures quickly develop other kinds of problems.

In fact, one foreclosure will shave up to 1.5 percent off the value of the other homes on the same block, according to research by Dan Immergluck, associate professor of city and regional planning at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Other costs are harder to measure, but municipal governments, police departments, and neighbors observe that empty homes give rise to an increase in thefts and may encourage drug dealers and even violent criminals to take advantage of the situation.

As homes fall into foreclosure, a neighborhood frequently turns more transient, analysts say. Investors often buy homes in foreclosure and rent them out if they can't sell them.

"You end up with a very fragmented community," says home owner Ann Fulman of Atlanta. "When investors buy them and turn them into rental property … folks come in [who] don't have the means to keep up the place."

In the Atlanta suburbs of Gwinnett County, the police department recently created a Quality of Life unit to address problems often associated with foreclosures. Working with other government agencies, the unit targets such issues as building-code enforcement, vagrancy, and graffiti.

Source: USA Today, Noelle Knox (04/13/07)

Potential Annual Drop in Home Prices Nationally

by John O'Leary

The following article highlights some of the pressures affecting housing prices nationally including sub-prime lending and tightening credit standards.

clipped from money.cnn.com Real estate group sees 0.7% decline in 2007, first annual drop since it began keeping track. By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday it expects its measure of home prices to fall this year for the first time since the group began keeping track nearly 40 years ago. In its latest monthly forecast, the real estate group said it expects a 0.7 percent decline in the median price of an existing home sold in 2007. A month ago it had been projecting a 1.2 percent increase. Half of all homes sell for more than the median and half for less. The subprime mortgage mess led the group to cut its sales forecast as well, by 100,000 to 6.34 million homes, a pace that would be about 2 percent below the 6.48 million existing homes sold in 2006. The group cited problems some buyers may have getting financing.

787,000 New Residents in the Valley

by John O'Leary

In the time period between 2000 and 2006, over 787,000 residents were added to the Valley (Phoenix and vicinity).  In the United States that represented the fourth-largest gain of any metro area.  The growth was roughly a 24 percent jump in population.

Atlanta, Dallas and Houston were the overall top three metropolitan areas experiencing tremendous growth during that time period.  The Phoenix area is now the 13th largest metro area in the country.

There are a tremendous number of reasons people move here, chief among them being climate.  Sure it gets hot, but it's a dry heat...  (no nasty hurricanes like Florida).

Updated Pulse of the Market Report!

by John O'Leary

Our Pulse of the Market Report has been updated with March, 2007, sales data from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). 

See the new report here »

New Century files for Bankruptcy

by John O'Leary

Less than 60 days after disclosing problems with their loan portfolio, New Century has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.  The company is based in Irvine, California, and has fired 3,200 employees and will sell their assets through the bankruptcy process. 

The reason for the bankruptcy is that New Century was the largest lender to people with poor credit and the term for their loans was "sub-prime".  New Century was forced to repurchase these loans from larger lenders and was unable to do so and stay liquid.

Here is a quote from their web site:

"New Century Mortgage Corporation and Home123 Corporation are unable to continue the origination or funding of mortgage loans, and no new loans are being accepted. We are committed to helping borrowers who have been affected by this. We are in the process of contacting customers and brokers to inform them that we're returning their loan applications, and to assist them in obtaining funding for pending loans."

Scottsdale Culinary Festival Coming April 10th

by John O'Leary

On Tuesday, April 10th, the Scottsdale Culinary Festival returns offering excellent food tasting in a fun, outdoor environment. If you haven't been before, take a look at their website at http://www.scottsdaleculinaryfestival.org/ which should wet your appetite.

clipped from www.scottsdaleculinaryfestival.org As the longest running festival of its kind in the United States, the Scottsdale Culinary Festival draws more than 40,000 visitors looking to enjoy fabulous food, fun and festivities (not to mention idyllic weather!) This year's festival will feature a host of events from cooking demonstrations by some the nation's top chefs to a one of a kind James Beard out of the house dinner.  No matter what kind of culinary experience you crave, the Scottsdale Culinary Festival has something for everyone!

Prices in U.S. Returning to Normal

by John O'Leary

If you read this entire story, just five paragraphs more than is clipped here, you will notice a number of areas including Tucson, Arizona, dropping below previous levels of overvalued status.

clipped from www.realtor.org “A market returning to normal” is the way Global Insight, a privately held global information company, describes the current housing market, based on the most recent U.S. Housing Valuation Analysis. The Housing Valuation Analysis — a joint effort by Global Insight and National City Corp. — examines the top 317 U.S. real estate markets using data from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. Taking into consideration differences in population density, household incomes, and interest rates, the analysis determines what home prices should be and how much current prices deviate from that norm. — By Camilla McLaughlin for REALTOR® Magazine Online Daily Real Estate News  |  March 30, 2007

More People Moving to Arizona

by John O'Leary

If global warming is really occurring and the seas rise, it would appear that more people will be moving to Arizona because I sure wouldn't want to move to the coast of Florida based on this data!

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com Science Daily — The first global study to identify populations at greatest risk from rising sea levels and more intense cyclones linked to climate change will be published next month in the peer-reviewed journal Environment and Urbanization. The research shows that 634 million people — one tenth of the global population — live in coastal areas that lie within just ten metres above sea level.  It calls for action to limit the effects of climate change, to help people migrate away from risk and to modify urban settlements to reduce their vulnerability. But it warns that this will require enforceable regulations and economic incentives, both of which depend on political will, funding and human capital. Source: International Institute for Environment and Development

Survey: Home Prices Depreciate for the Year

by John O'Leary

On the National Housing News front, Standard & Poors released a report showing that prices of single-family homes dropped in January compared to a year earlier. Apparently it takes them seven weeks to analyze the data...

clipped from www.foxnews.com NEW YORK —  Prices of single-family homes across the nation depreciated in January compared to a year ago, the worst results in more than 13 years, a housing index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's showed. The data underscored disappointing sales data released by the government on Monday. The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index showed a drop of 0.7 percent from a year ago in the price of a single-family home based on existing homes tracked over time in 10 metropolitan markets. In January 1994 the index dropped by 0.9 percent compared to January 1993, S&P said.

Lowest New Home Sales in 7 Years

by John O'Leary

Rex Nutting of MarketWatch reported today that sales of new homes fell in February to a 7 year low.

clipped from www.marketwatch.com ECONOMIC REPORT February's inventories of unsold houses at a 16-year high New-home sales fall to seven-year low WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sales of new homes unexpectedly dropped in February to the lowest level seen in nearly seven years, while inventories of unsold homes rose to a 16-year high, suggesting that the nation's housing market was softening heading into the vital spring buying season. Sales of newly constructed single-family houses unexpectedly slowed again in February, falling 3.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 848,000, the lowest level since June 2000, the Commerce Department reported Monday. Sales were down 18.3% compared with February 2006.  Read the full report. "Housing still has some distance to fall," wrote Phillip Neuhart, an economist for Wachovia, in a research note.