Phoenix Metro Area Resale And New Homes

The federal tax credit helped new home sales across metropolitan Phoenix increase enough in April to beat last year's pace. There were 823 new home sales in metro Phoenix last month, reports the Phoenix Housing Market Letter. That compares to 789 in April 2009. It's the first month this year that new homes sales have topped ...

Lenders in 2009 foreclosed on about 41,000 single-family detached homes in Maricopa County, according to a report from Arizona State University. That's more foreclosures than the Valley has seen during any previous year on record, accounting for more than 35 percent of all existing-home transactions, the report said. Its author, Jay Butler, ...

The Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 has extended the tax credit of up to $8,000 for qualified first-time home buyers purchasing a principal residence. The tax credit now applies to sales occurring on or after January 1, 2009 and on or before April 30, 2010. However, in cases where a binding sales contract is signed by ...

The FHA relaxed the property flip regulations.   This waiver is effective for all sales contracts dated on or after February 1, 2010 and will end on January 31, 2011.  Certain property may be resold and financed using FHA insured financing without waiting 90 days.  FHA has temporarily waived the 90 day wait period, on ...

Many foreclosed homes are bought by investors who can pay cash, market watchers say. That means fewer homes are going to buyers who plan to live there and hang onto the house for a while. Owner-occupied homes ultimately help an area's recovery. The Valley's housing market is seeing the flipside of the investor cycle now. In 2004, investors ...

As long as foreclosures continue to climb, home prices will fall. More than 30,000 Valley homes have been foreclosed on so far this year. That compares to fewer than 1,500 foreclosures in 2006. Now, almost all of the homes are going back to the lenders, which are reselling them for bargain prices. "It's clear foreclosures are putting a ...

Metropolitan Phoenix now leads the nation for home price declines, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price index released this morning. The Valley’s existing home price fell 30.7 percent between August 2007 and August 2008. The Valley just beat out Las Vegas for the top spot for the biggest drop in home prices. The Nevada ...

For aspiring home owners who find their goal stubbornly elusive, newly enacted legislation providing a tax credit of as much as $7,500 for first-time home buyers might just be the opportunity of a lifetime. But like so many of the good things in life, time is of the essence for buyers who want to take advantage of this outstanding opportunity. ...

The housing bill that’s expected to pass in the Senate this week seeks to end the seller-funded down-payment assistance programs that allow home buyers to put no money down on a home loan backed by the Federal Housing Administration. But experts predict a long battle may lie ahead for opponents of the assistance programs, which I wrote about ...

 FHA LOAN CHANGES In February, President Bush signed a bill that made a temporary increase to both conforming and FHA loan limits. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently released the new limits, which range from $271,050 to $729,750 depending on the county. Previously, they were capped at $362,790. With FHA ...