June 27th, 2009 by Michael Oliver

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Share on Facebook When you have decided to purchase a new home from a builder one of the most important decisions is: “Which lot should I pick to have the home built on?” Selecting a lot is in my mind after selecting the floor plan and builder the biggest decision you will make and one that will affect the value of your home probably the most. So what should you look for in determining the lot you select for your home to built upon? Here are a couple questions you should ask yourself and in a perfect world one lot would rate the highest in these several areas:

June 18th, 2009 by Michael Oliver

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Mortgage Rates have started falling pretty significantly almost a full quarter of a point (0.21% to be exact) making the current 30 year fixed mortgage rate on average 5.38%. Rates were topping out around 5.75% just a couple of weeks ago as the stock market had seen serious gains pulling money out of bonds depressing their yields thus essentially lowering mortgage rates. (There are a couple more steps involved but that’s the simple way to make it understandable in how and why mortgage rates raise and fall.)

June 16th, 2009 by Michael Oliver

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May housing starts were up significantly (17.2%) and building permits followed with a 4% increase. While a definite good sign the numbers are not quite as good as they would seem when you look into them. First off most of the gains were in the multi-family segment (up 61.7%). But also its important to note builders have started more spec homes as they are trying to gear up and push as many finished homes as possible to make the $8,000 first time buyer tax credit by the deadline date of 11/30/09. Here’s an except from Diana Olick’s blog on cnbc.com:

June 14th, 2009 by Michael Oliver

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A new home builder’s sales representative called me and told me about some special pricing they are running on a certain spec home that is almost done. The home is a little over 1300sf in one of the more prestigious individual neighborhoods of Rancho Sahuarita. Pricing for the home is a pretty incredible at $133k (With some negotiation you should be able to get an even better deal.) so for all those people (or investors) who though under $135k for a brand new home in Rancho Sahuarita doesn’t exist this is proof it does. If you would like additional info about this home contact me and I will get it for you. I do not think this home is on MLS so if you try to look it up chances are you will not find it.  I would give out more information on the blog but we try to keep a competitive advantage over the other Realtors in Tucson that don’t have the connections so sorry about that but email/call and I would be glad to answer whatever questions you may have. Also one last thing this home is projected to be done in 30-60 days for move-in.

June 11th, 2009 by Michael Oliver

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On June 10th a foreclosure in Tucson’s very popular mega neighborhood Continental Ranch closed for $87.09/sf! That’s really cheap for a highly upgraded home that resides in one of the newer and higher end subdivisions within Continental Ranch. This home is a 4 bedroom plus den with 2.5 baths, loft, 3 car tandem garage, granite slab counters, cherry cabinets, stainless steel appliances, high ceilings, extensive tile floors, full length patio, backing a green space. This home sold for $402,842 in 2006 just 3 years ago! That’s a full 32.50% decline and in real dollar terms $130,842 discount from a couple years ago. This home looks to be in good shape and only lasted 7 days on the market until it went under contract. That’s extremely fast most homes (even bank owned homes) over $250k take a little more time to sell as those buyers have many more options then buyers in the under $150k price range.

June 10th, 2009 by Michael Oliver

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The Tucson real estate market is recovering from the boom that 2004-2005 brought, with huge sales numbers and high prices to boot. Active listings are way down. At 6506, we are getting much closer to the 5000-5500 mark that I think brings a very close buyer/seller balance.

This article, including charts, links to previous reports, and a link to this month’s full MLS report, is continued on Michael’s website. Please click here to continue.

June 7th, 2009 by Michael Oliver

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Starting soon first time buyers who currently receive an $8,000 Federal tax credit with a home purchase will be able to use that money for their closing costs if they use FHA (Federal Housing Administration) financing on that home purchase. First Time home buyers in Tucson will still need to be able to put the standard 3.5% down payment down on the home purchase but instead of also having to pay the closing costs out of pocket (Or having to get the seller to pay for it through negotiation) the buyer will have the option to use a portion (or all) of the $8,000 federal tax credit to cover closing costs. Closing costs are those costs associated with providing the buyer financing these costs include appraisal, processing, underwriting, credit report, title, and loan origination fees.

June 6th, 2009 by Michael Oliver

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In doing some statistics for what sellers on average are accepting for offers it was interesting to follow the list vs. sell price of homes in Tucson over the past 4 years. From 2005 until 2009 (I ran the stats over the same time span to make them as accurate as possible the time frame was from 1/1/200*- 6/5/200*) the final list vs. sale differential has grown pretty sizably as buyers have taken full control of the marketplace. The help explain it better this percentage is what “on average” the final sales price was in relation to the list price before the home went under contract. So homes that were over priced to start with then reduced in price to come in at market price then sell are only counted from where they were priced just before going under contract. In addition keep in mind only homes that are priced correctly get the traffic (buyers coming to see the home) to facilitate a home sale. So with that being said here are the statistics. (Again keep in mind this is a percentage of the list price so if a home was listed at $100,000 and the “on average” list vs. sell percentage is 90% then on average the $100,000 home sells for $90,000.)

June 4th, 2009 by Michael Oliver

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Pending Home sales across the country continued there upswing across the nation pending sales were up. In fact the sales increases are up the most in 8 years! In the West pending sales are up 1.8%. Pending sales indicate that a buyer and seller have come to terms and a home is in escrow “pending” for sale. Now while a home is pending for sale lots of things can happen, inspections could come in worse then expected, buyers may not qualify for the loan even if pre-approved previously, etc. Pending sales indicate typically the actual sales numbers for the next month as this months pending sales should in a lot of cases be next months close sales.