General

post thumbnail

Fountain Hills hosts 34th Annual Fountain Festival of Arts and Crafts this weekend

I live in Fountain Hills, AZ. Our claim to fame is we are home to one of the tallest fountains in the world! What alot of people don’t know is that the Town of Fountain Hills hosts several great events throughout the year. This upcoming weekend, Friday, Nov 14th - Sunday, November 16th from 10am-5pm daily (rain or shine) the [...]

13Nov2008 | Michele Guss | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Phoenix Foreclosure Statistics for August

I thought you would be interested in the latest foreclosure statistics. In August, Arizona ranks 3rd in the country, behind California and Nevada, for the number of recorded foreclosure filings. RealtyTrac states that ”one out of every 182 households or more than 14,000 homes in Arizona” are in some stage of default. It is important to remember that [...]

13Sep2008 | Michele Guss | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Phoenix home prices declining slower over last 2 months

I just read an article that had some interesting statistics regarding price declines in the Phoenix Metro area. Overall home prices have shown a 22.8% decline from June 2007 to June 2008. Peoria shows the largest decline at 28.1% while Scottsdale/Paradise Valley had the smallest decline at 14%. The article goes on to say that for the [...]

12Sep2008 | Michele Guss | 2 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac taken over..stocks soar

On Sunday the government announced it is taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in hopes of strengthening the housing and financial markets. Following this announcement, on Monday the Dow rose 290 points. To read the full stories, click on the following links:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/09/08/ST2008090801017.html?hpid=topnews 
and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/07/AR2008090700259.html.

8Sep2008 | Michele Guss | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Factors that will lead to real estate recovery

I was talking to someone this morning and she asked me when I thought the market would recover. My thoughts on this topic are complex. To follow are some general ideas I have about factors that will lead to stabilization and eventually recovery. The 1st thing to consider is that real estate is local.  It depends on what state, county, area, or even subdivision [...]

5Sep2008 | Michele Guss | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Survey says: Sellers are still in denial about what their house is worth

Today I am going to write about a topic I am experiencing firsthand…seller denial. I have been considering listing my single family house in Fountain Hills, Arizona for sale. I had not run comparable sales (comps) for my house in quite a while so I entered all the pertinent data about my house into the MLS: square footage, # of [...]

7Aug2008 | Michele Guss | 2 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Some good news in the re-sale market?

I receive daily e-mail updates from the Phoenix Business Journal. My posts on this blog tend to mimic what I have read that day. 
Today I read an article stating that the Pending Sales Index used by the Natl Assc of Realtors indicates there was a + change  in the past month. While May’s reading was 84.5, the index jumped to [...]

7Aug2008 | Michele Guss | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Bill signed to regulate AZ loan officers

I just read an article in the Phoenix Business Journal today regarding a new bill that Gov. Janet Napolitano has signed into law to regulate individual loan officers in the State of Arizona. As it stands now, only the mortgage broker is required to be licensed.  Personally I am in agreement with the new law.  All realtors are [...]

16Jul2008 | Michele Guss | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Arizona Neighborhood Information

This is my first time blogging so bear with me! I wanted to let you know about a great website to look up information about neighborhoods in the Phoenix Metro area. Under the Community tab you can find HOA info, maps, school districts, library, police & fire etc. Keep in mind that they run this site [...]

15Jul2008 | Michele Guss | 1 comment | Continued
post thumbnail

Francy’s Cool Website of the Week

I love information.  I love maps. I love having access to on-going studies.  Information can be the key to success.  One of my favorite sites for information is the Maricopa Association of Governments website.
I can spend hours on this site.
Interested in what is happening with the money from the freeway tax?  Here is the “2007 [...]

27Jun2008 | Francy | 2 comments | Continued
Older Entries