Valley of the Sun Foreclosures

I always enjoy reading the reports and insight that come out of John Burns Consulting. There's some great good news hidden in the latest dose of bad news that arrived in my inbox today. The title is "Permit Plummet is Astonishing." The charts and graphs present some visually striking statistics i...

What impact will the loss of downpayment assistance programs like Nehemiah and Ameridream have on housing prices overall? And how about in already foreclosure-depressed markets like Arizona, Nevada, California and Florida? One realtor here in Scottsdale that I spoke to the other day felt that it ...

The Quarterly Survey of Housing Data from the Wall Street Journal is summarized in a useful interactive table titled "Housing Inventory Falling, But Outlook is Bleak." Yeah, well, not much we didn't already know in the title, but the chart shows key economic and real estate market data for 28 maj...

The Senate on Saturday passed the Housing Bill in a rare weekend session. The bill will go on to the President for signature. Read more in the Wall Street Journal here. After the failure of First National Bank yesterday, hopefully the Housing Bill will calm things down a bit, and help bring Arizo...

First National Bank of Arizona, headquartered in Scottsdale, was closed by the FDIC at the end of the business day Friday. The Arizona Republic has published some Questions and Answers, saying that there is no need for depositors to worry. Apparently Mutual of Omaha is taking over and will reopen...

A refreshing look at the brighter side is presented in a Wall Street Journal article this afternoon Cashing In on Real Estate, It's Still Possible. Rural land, "dockominiums," fractional ownership and overseas real estate are all seen as attractive spots to park cash while returning decent yields...

Today's Arizona Republic didn't contain much in the way of encouraging news about the Valley of the Sun's foreclosure situation, with a headline reading "Worst still to come, experts say." The few brighter spots in the local foreclosure scene are in NE Phoenix and Scottsdale, but truth be told, t...

NAR statistics for the month of June were released today. Most of the media are harping on the negative aspects (that sales and median prices are lower than a year ago), but there's some good news hidden in the stats that nobody seems to be talking about. What is that, you ask? Well, for one thin...

I've heard a number of businesspeople around the valley trying to convince us that "things are still going up in commercial real estate" in Scottsdale and Phoenix. I was scratching my head when I heard all this, 'cause it just didn't seem to add up to what I've been seeing around town. Then I rea...

I didn't think it would ever finally happen, but today the House finally passed its long debated housing rescue bill. Bush even says he's going to sign it, despite his opposition to certain aspects of the legislation. According to the New York Times, "The bill authorizes the Federal Housing Admin...