May 2011 Real Estate News
What’s the Buzz? March and April have been pretty good to real estate:
In greater Phoenix, some key month-over-month stats include:
All-in-all, not a bad report card! Keller Williams Realty Red Day! Each year, on Red Day, all KW offices around the country (some 700 offices) will be serving the communities in which we live to give back and make a difference. Our Market Center (KW Sonoran Living) will be holding a Food & Money Drive, as well as preparing backpacks full of food for children through the charity Arizona Brain Food. The money and food donated will be used to help school aged children eat healthy meals on the weekend when they are not in school. We are asking you to help us by contributing to our cause. From now until May 12th we will be accepting food and monetary donations from 8-5 at our office, 5301 N Pima Rd. #130 Scottsdale, AZ 85250; and 4621 East Chandler Boulevard #160, Phoenix, AZ 85048. We will be accepting non-perishable kid friendly food items to complete our backpacks. Our goal is to fill 700 backpacks for children, which will feed 700 children for a weekend. All donations are tax-deductible and monetary donations can go a long way! A donation of $5 feeds a child for a weekend, $20 feeds a child for a month, and $180 gives a child weekend meals for a school year. We will also be collecting the food items below:
Please keep us in mind with all your Real Estate needs (don’t forget to refer your friends to us). We are always looking for new buyers and sellers, so if you know of anyone planning to buy or sell a home, please point them our way! And be sure to watch for our detailed statistics for the local real estate market mid-month! ~Bonnie & Chuck Kennedy In this edition:
Existing-Home Sales Rise in March 2011 RISMEDIA, April 21, 2011—Sales of existing-home sales rose in March 2011, continuing an uneven recovery that began after sales bottomed last July, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 3.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.10 million in March from an upwardly revised 4.92 million in February, but are 6.3% below the 5.44 million pace in March 2010. Sales were at elevated levels from March through June of 2010 in response to the home buyer tax credit. Click here for complete article.
Pending Home Sales Rise Again RISMEDIA, April 29, 2011—March saw another increase in pending home sales, with contract activity rising unevenly in six of the past nine months, according to the National Association of Realtors®. The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, rose 5.1 percent to 94.1 in March from a downwardly revised 89.5 in February. The index is 11.4 percent below 106.2 in March 2010; however, activity was at elevated levels in March and April of 2010 to meet the contract deadline for the home buyer tax credit. Click here for complete article.
March home sales in Phoenix area the most in 66 months Phoenix Business Journal -- Good news on the residential real estate front. The 9,933 Phoenix-area sales transactions that closed in March marks the most sales in 66 months, according to the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service Inc. monthly statistics report. It’s also the fifth highest sales month since 2001. Click here for complete article.
Metro Phoenix housing market showing signs of upswing azCentral.com -- Metro Phoenix's housing market took a turn for the better last month, and if current trends continue, home prices could start to climb again before the end of the year. Market experts say now is still too early to declare the beginning of a recovery for the region's battered home values. But the number of successful home sales is at near-record levels, the number of homes for sale is dropping, future foreclosures are in decline and home prices, although low, are holding steady. Click here for complete article.estate
Foreclosure activity eased in April azCentral.com -- Pre-foreclosures fell to 4,200 last month, their lowest level since December 2007, according to real-estate-research firm Information Market. In Arizona, pre-foreclosures are notice-of-trustee-sale filings that signal that a lender has started the legal process of taking a home back from a borrower. Click here for complete article.
Supply of Chandler homes for sale quickly decreasing azCentral.com -- Buyers have begun to snap up homes in Chandler, shown by a decreasing supply of homes on the market. There were 1,591 homes listed for sale on March 24 compared with 1,725 on Dec. 24, according to Mike Orr, publisher of the Cromford Report, an online daily analysis of real transactions. A supply of 4.4 months exists in Chandler, compared with a six-month supply in December in Chandler. That's slightly lower than the overall supply in metropolitan Phoenix. Click here for complete article.
Home Buyers Shun ‘Fixer-Uppers’ RISMEDIA, May 2, 2011 In the overheated housing market of five years ago, buyers often felt they had to accept homes in woeful condition. But these days, most look at “as-is” properties and say, “No thanks.” “I try to stay away from things that need a lot of work,” says Michael Lisa of Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., who is searching for a home in northern Bergen County, N.J. “Buyers will tolerate nothing,” says Maria Rini, an agent in Oradell, N.J. A recent Coldwell banker survey found that 87 percent of first-time buyers said a move-in-ready home is important to them. “This is absolutely the story of this market. It seems buyers will pay a premium, engage in a bidding war and even overpay just to avoid buying a ‘project’ house...” Click here for complete article.
U.S. averages as of May 1, 2011: 30 yr. fixed: 4.65% 15 yr. fixed: 3.88% 30 yr. jumbo: 5.25% 5/1 ARM: 3.19%
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