2009 September | Tempe Real Estate and Homes for Sale

Welcome to Tempe Real Estate

September 15, 2009 By Tempe Real Estate Agent

For those of you coming from stevetrang.com, Welcome! You may have noticed that over time, I haven’t had the time and energy necessary to manage stevetrang.com properly. I intend to add all the same features that you’ve been accustomed to there as well as the great resources here. Have a seat and take your time browsing all the wonderful pages here.

Sincerely,
Steve

Filed Under: All Real Estate Tagged With: Tempe

You can still buy a house with Zero down!

September 11, 2009 By Tempe Real Estate Agent

This week, we have a guest blogger. Tony is a Hawaiian Real Estate Agent, and he shares some wonderful information:

You’ve heard of the USDA and seen their stickers on the steaks you buy at the grocery store. But did you know they also insure home loans? Strange as it sounds, the USDA’s rural development program has a loan program that allows you to buy real estate with no money down in any area that they deem “rural.”

Good news for readers of this blog – many areas of Arizona are eligible for the USDA 100% home loan! While most banks and lenders have long since stopped offering zero down home loans, there are still many brokers and lenders in every state who offer 100% financing through this great program.

The USDA home loan has some great features:

100% loan amount with no loan amount limit
6% seller concessions allowed
No monthly mortgage insurance
You don’t have to be a first time buyer

There is an income limit for borrowers, but that limit is pretty high in some areas. For instance, in Hawaii the limit is $109,000 a year, so most people still qualify. If you want to check your eligibility and look for a neighborhood near you in your state, check out the USDA’s website.

Oddly that “rural” designation happens to apply to a lot of areas that nobody else would consider rural. Even some larger suburbs are on the list, so wherever you’re reading this, there may be a community nearby that is eligible.

Tony Kawaguchi is a Realtor with Realty Executives Oahu and sells Hawaii real estate

100% Loan Program

Filed Under: All Real Estate Tagged With: Buying

Market Analysis for August 2009

September 4, 2009 By Tempe Real Estate Agent

It looks like the market is finally showing signs of slowing down. The sky isn’t falling, we’re just going from three consecutive months of 8000+ homes sold to 7040 for the month of August. Based off the numbers, it looks like many of the cash buyers are stepping back either because the bottom of the market has seen a sharp increase in prices or maybe they’re going back to the stock market. Either way, it’s certainly good news for many of the first time home buyers.

August Inventory of Homes Available in Phoenix

Another interesting trend is that the overall number of homes available for sale have continued to go down, despite the number of homes sales has slowed just a bit. With the number of sales going down, though, monthly inventory naturally goes up. Overall in Phoenix metro, we have gone from 4.59 months of inventory for July to 5.24 months in August. Across the board, most of the cities have increased by about a month. The exceptions would be Gilbert and Chandler, which have maintained the same level.

Status of Homes sold in August in Phoenix metro

Overall, we are seeing roughly 35% of homes bought in cash, 51% of are foreclosures, 18% are short sales, and 31% are traditional resales.

The next few months will be very interesting. Just like when down payment assistance ended before, there will be a crazy rush here. The deadline for the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit is Dec 1. That means that anybody participating in the program needs to be in contract by October 16th at the latest if they’re going FHA. So imagine all the people bidding for homes in the first couple weeks of October. They will be competing very strongly against one another. I strongly suggest that if you are interested in this program, that you find something in the next couple of weeks. Or else, you may find yourself outbidded during the most critical stretch.

	Active	Pending	Sold	Inventory
Tempe	722	217	155	6.06
Chandler	1150	613	394	4.47
Gilbert	1212	681	449	4.22
Scottsdale	4182	762	488	10.13
Mesa	2450	1039	665	5.25
Ahwatukee	487	171	104	6.33
Paradise Valley	500	32	27	19.70
Phoenix	6962	3154	2070	4.89
Maricopa County	26037	10853	7040	5.24