I just bought the coolest video recorder called a FLIP Video Recorder. I am going to start using it when I take buyers out to look at homes. When we go into a home I will record the home like a virtual tour and then at the end of the day we can replay it if they have forgotten which home has which floorplan or upgrade to help them make a decision. I will also email it to them so they can forward it onto their family and friends.

I am also going to use it on my listings so that I can make a video of the home and post it on YouTube to promote the home on more of a personal level than a formal virtual tour. They say 2009 is the age of the video, so I am going to make the best use of it that I can. If you are looking for a realtor that will use the latest technology, visit my website at www.betsiemelter.com

This FLIP video is so easy to use. It has a USB in the camera and flips out and you just plug it into your computer and send and save. So easy and fun. What a cool tool for Realtors!

Many people ask me if I take a break from real estate once the triple digits hit. And I actually have to laugh because even though it is 116 degrees out in Chandler, we are actually in our busiest time of year. People still seem to buy homes in the summer. I think one of the main reasons is because school is out and parents want to move before school starts again. Other people also have vacation time that they use to look for homes or take the time off to actually move homes etc.

Whatever the case may be, I am still working full time and am here in Chandler ready to help you sell or buy your next home. The real estate market, like I said, is actually very busy and in many cases homes have multiple offers and are selling for higher than purchase price.

If you think you might want to start looking or are ready to jump in, let me know and I would be happy to set up a search. The best place to start is to contact a lender and get pre-qualified so that when you are ready we will be able to submit an offer.

For more information or for lenders that can help you, log onto my website at www.betsiemelter.com

HUD has revised their $8000 first-time home buyer tax credit, and Arizona may not qualify at all!

Earlier last week ML 09-15 was re-released with SUBSTANTIAL changes. The major points are:

1. The borrower can monetize the tax credit, but it CANNOT be used towards the 3.5% down payment requirement.
2. A company/individual charging for the service cannot charge more than 2.5% of the credit amount.
3. You will have to document the file (and the due diligence) for the tax credit purchase – VERY CAREFULLY. HUD will be watching these closely!
4. IRS Form 5405 has to be completed, and RETAINED in the case binder!
5. NO cash back to the borrower!

From what my Lender is also telling me, Arizona may not qualify at all for the tax credit. I would highly suggest talking to an accountant if you are relying on that tax credit before you start the homebuying process. Buying a home is still a good investment so just because you may not get the credit, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy a house. Look at it this way, if you end up qualifying for the tax credit that is icing on the cake but if not at least you have a house to call your own.

Some people are complaining because investors have started buying homes again in Chandler. I say this is great news! Investors buying again means that they see potential in the market and the prices are good enough for them to buy so it should mean that they are good enough for you to buy too!

The investors that are buying homes are not speculators; they are true investors that do this for a living. They analyze markets, homes, communities and the cash flow a property can produce. They aren’t here to buy and resell. Most are in it for a long term investment. This means that the inventory is beginning to decrease and the many homes that are sitting vacant are being bought, refurbished and renters are moving in. This helps the neighborhoods from increased vandalism and crime.

So, to those who are mad that are investors are moving back into the Chandler Real Estate Market, look at it from my perspective. They aren’t here to hurt your investment, they are here to help everyone and they benefit in the end.

Back in 2005 when houses were increasing daily in price we had appraisal issues where the houses were appraising for less than the purchase price. The appraisers couldn’t keep up because it was changing daily. Well, we are back in the same situation, but reverse. The homes have decreased so much in the past 2 years that appraisers weren’t keeping up with the decline and most of the appraisals were coming in for more than the purchase price. Now, I think they have finally realized how much everything has declined and they are appraising properties very conservatively with the mindset that the market is still declining and they are appraising homes for less than the purchase price.

There are two ways to look at this, yes, it is good that the prices are coming in lower for the buyers, but does it necessarily mean the house is worth that much less than the buyers and seller agreed? And secondly, are the appraisers behind again? I think they are just being so cautious because the market has changed so much but we are actually seeing the market making an upturn and the appraisers are 2 steps behind again. This is affecting the buyers and sellers because some sellers may not be able to come down to the appraised value and buyers, in my opinion, shouldn’t put extra money down on a house that didn’t appraise. So, all of the pending homes we are seeing in the mls may fall through and I believe it will be partly because of appraisal issues.

My best advice is to run comps before you put an offer in so that the price is acceptable up front and have the agents talk to the appraiser beforehand if possible to explain all of the attributes that property has. Hopefully your appraisal will come back at or above purchase price and you don’t have to worry about renegotiations or even cancelling a contract at the end.

April 6, 2009 established a bottom for $/SF sales pricing across the Greater Phoenix area. This does not mean that prices will not go lower in certain areas – they will. But the overall average price per square foot put in a convincing low on April 6 and has been moving sideways to slightly up ever since.

Based on the Cromford Report the cities of Phoenix, Avondale, Gilbert, Mesa, Peoria and Queen Creek are making the best cases for establishing a bottom, while Chandler, Goodyear, Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale and Surprise still have some work to do. Of course we need to continue to watch to see if the pattern strengthens or fades. The current readings for Pending $/SF suggest more sideways movement in the near term.

Every city showed improvement in April over March with supply falling and demand rising. In some areas the fall in supply was overwhelming. Pending sales rose yet again, actual sales continued their strong advance, and listing success rates climbed. The following Cities have the months worth of supply compared to January’s supply. You can tell how quickly the inventory has declined.

• Avondale 4.4 (was 8.9)
• Chandler 5.7 (was 9.1)
• Gilbert 5.2 (was 7.9)
• Glendale 3.2 (was 9.1)
• Goodyear 3.8 (was 8.6)
• Mesa 4.4 (was 8.9)
• Peoria 4.9 (was 10.3)
• Phoenix 3.4 (was 9.0)
• Queen Creek 2.9 (was 6.1)
• Scottsdale 14.3 (was 19.4)
• Surprise 3.3 (was 7.2)
• Tempe 6.7 (was 8.7)

I would consider an inventory level of 4.5 months as “normal” so we can see 7 out of the 12 major cities can now be called a “seller’s market”. Yes, you heard me, a Seller’s Market (anything under 6 months is usually considered a Seller’s Market)

Let’s look at some basic sales numbers:

• April sales (all types and areas) – 8,500
• Greater Phoenix Lender-owned Property sales – 5,629
• Greater Phoenix Pre-foreclosure & Short Sales – 846
• Greater Phoenix Normal Sales – 1981.

So REOs still dominated the sales figures, but they are not as dominant as they once were. Among the active listings, REOs are declining quite fast – they now comprise about 17% of all listings whereas in early January they comprised 28% of a much bigger number. In fact, considered as a market segment, Greater Phoenix REO listing on ARMLS represent only a 1.3 month supply at their current monthly sales rate.

Pre-foreclosures and short sales are becoming an increasing percentage of both listings and sales, although their listing success rate, having improved from 21% in February to 34% in April, still has a ways to go to rival REOs with their phenomenal listing success rate in April of 86%.

With the numbers telling the story, Phoenix Realtors are looking up and toward the future. We have bounced back much quicker than analysts had projected and are doing considerably better than the other states that were hit hard like us.

In the East Valley and in South Chandler , homes that are priced below $200,000 have less than a six month inventory which means it is a neutral market but leaning toward a buyer’s market. Does this mean the market is recovering? Well, I would say the prices have finally dropped to a point where buyers can afford them again. Inventory is declining and by looking at the chart below, you can see how the pending sales have increased the last 3 months . Most of these pending sales should close which means that our inventory should continue to drop. That is very good news for sellers.

Based on price point, the lower homes are selling and are actually selling pretty quickly. Homes priced higher are obviously going to take longer to sell, but even up to $400,000 we are still under a 12 month inventory timeline which is not horrible, considering what the Phoenix market has gone through the last 3 years. The REO or Bank Owned homes are decreasing as those prices continually decline. The Bank owned inventory, in most places and especially in South Chandler, is only 1.4 month supply. Continue to see inventory drop as we head into our busy season from May-September.

Check back next week to see if we have any updated numbers on actual sales in April. And remember if you would like a list of REO homes for sale or need a market analysis of your home please feel free to email me at melterhomes@johnhall.com or check out my website.

I know buyers are frustrated with the Short Sale process and I am too. Many buyer’s have decided the best way to insure that they will eventually get a house is to put multiple offers in on multiple houses. This is probably a good idea but you better make sure that you withdraw your offer on all of the other homes as soon as you have an acceptance from the bank, because otherwise you have just bought two homes.

It is very frustrating to finally find a house you like then have to wait many months and still not know if you even will get the house or not. The best advice is to go into the process without emotions and try not to get attached to a certain house. The likelihood of you getting the first house you put an offer in on is not too high in my recent experience. I have many clients that have 3 or 4 offers on short sales and we are just waiting to see who comes back first. In the meantime, some of the banks are still taking offers and if they are higher, then they bump out the original offer. So, even if you have submitted a strong offer and you were first, it still doesn’t mean the bank will choose your offer. Make sure to ask the listing agent how they are handling multiple offers. It would be really disappointing to wait 3 months and at the end find out that you were just bumped out because a better offer came in.

Good Luck out there, it is a rough time for buyers, even though they say it is a buyer’s market.

For some reason March is a month that analysts look at to tell whether our summer season will be a productive one or if we are in for trouble. This past March was a good one.

March is telling us sales volume is up and continuing to climb, the rate at which median home prices are falling is declining, which is hinting that prices are approaching their much anticipated bottom. The leading indicator of near future sales has been interest rates and interest rates are at historical lows. Investors, particularly California investors, are returning to the market. Foreclosure cancellation numbers are catching actual foreclosures; don’t be surprised to see April’s cancellations exceed April’s foreclosures. Notices have continued to rise, but again, I think the high current notices have more to do with the moratorium than the market, nonetheless, the numbers are significant and are a constant reminder we’re not out of the woods yet.

I have more and more people asking me about areas and which hot spots they should buy rental properties in, so I can see the wheels turning in people’s minds that they are thinking about long term investment and how this is the time to buy.

I do think that the real estate market will rebound soon. The South Chandler area is still growing, the school’s are excelling and the district didn’t have to lay off any teachers. The commercial structures have finally made their way out to us and will improve our quality of life as South Chandler residents. All I can say is that it is a great city to live in and hopefully an even better city to invest in for long term real estate profits.

According to the Cromford Report, Phoenix’s real estate market is recovering much more rapidly than the rest of the country and April looks to be picking up even more than February and March.

Probably the most surprising statistics are those related to pending sales. Yesterday, Maricopa County recorded the largest ever annual growth in pending sales, for the first time ever it has moved over 100%. Avondale, Glendale, Goodyear, Peoria, Phoenix and Surprise show all-time record highs in pending sales for single family detached homes. This means higher than 2005!

Two thirds of pending sales are foreclosures. The banks are having little difficulty moving foreclosed properties to new buyers. REO average days on market for active listings have fallen from 227 in November to 117 in March.

Our Sales numbers are up as well. Sales are nearly 70% higher than March 2008. The supply of REOs is becoming quite thin in certain spots heavily frequented by bargain hunters. For example, in Queen Creek there were only 79 active (not AWC) single family detached listings for REOs in this ZIP code yesterday, with 165 in escrow. There were 169 active at the beginning of February and only 128 in escrow. So there are 90 fewer active REO listings than 2 months ago and 37 more sales in process. This is a very strong REO market.

What does this mean? I can only take the information I am reading and conclude that we are headed for an upturn. I don’t know how soon this will be but I am seeing many homes have multiple offers, bidding wars and days on market dropping considerably. If you are thinking of buying and don’t know if it has hit the bottom yet, let me tell you I think the bottom is here. Our buying season starts in February and goes til September. The prices usually jump from June til August, so I would recommend you start looking in the real estate market now before the prices are on the upturn and you realize that you missed the bottom.