AZintheValley

   Last week was a whirlwind that included spring training baseball, hiking, train rides, festivals, sunshine, swimming and somehow a little bit of work.  For the last seven days my parents, brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew were all visiting me to escape the harsh Midwest weather.  In a ...

I was recently scanning the Internet reading up on some market reports when I came across 11 Markets With Highest Home Appreciations.  Unfortunately, there were no Arizona markets that made the list but what caught my eye was the #1 Market: Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  My hometown, where I was born and r...

A new Homeowner Stability Plan was recently passed in Congress making refinancing more available and mortgage rates continue to fall, so that should make obtaining a loan a painless process…right?  Well, not exactly.  Because of shady loan practices in the past, much of which has been blamed for ...

I was holding an open house the other day and got to thinking, "If the owners of the home were driving by would they be enticed stop and go in?"  Being a newer agent I hold a lot open houses for agents in my office and they often vary in price, condition and community.  The house that I was sitti...

Short sale!  Short sale!  Short sale!  The term has become very popular throughout the real estate industry.  For some the term means frustration, for others it means opportunity, but a more definitive definition is when a borrower is “upside down” on their mortgage and the lender agrees to accep...

  I usually like to keep an eye on what Laurence Yun, the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) chief economist, has to say about the state and future of our economy and what it means for the housing market.  I have referenced him in past articles I have written and found his latest contributio...

  In this tough real estate market many homeowners are electing not to sell unless they absolutely have to.  Depending on the circumstances it may be a wise decision not sell right now, but there are things homeowners can do to make their current home more livable and increase the value when the...

There are a lot of signs pointing to a highly uncertain economic picture in 2009, but ’09 can be a very optimistic year for the housing market.  When the market was at astonishing heights a few years ago, California, Florida and Nevada were some of the state’s leading the way.  In Arizona, Califo...

A month ago on November 4, 2008, Paradise Valley special election results approved a new Special Use Permit to Five Star Development Resort Communities, L.L.C., who are the developers of The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Paradise Valley.  The almost 2-1 decision in favor of The Ritz, allows for...

I think many of you will agree that it seems like wherever you turn the media is continually painting a bleak picture of the current housing marketing. Whether it is in the newspapers or on the five-o’clock news, the stories always seem to focus on the decline in home values and the number of for...