Escape to Scottsdale's Blog: All Categories

For many recent years the Scottsdale, Fountain Hills, and Paradise Valley custom home market was a very lucrative business to be in. Whether you were a builder or a buyer there were handsome profits to be made. In the recent recession, the luxury market has not been immune to a severe downturn.

In several of Scottsdale’s and Fountain Hills’ high profile luxury golf communities including Whisper Rock, Mirabel, Troon, FireRock , DC Ranch and Desert Mountain, sits a nice selection of inventory that are now priced well below replacement value. Even with land values down due to market conditions and the willingness and inability of banks to finance construction loans, there are hard construction costs associated with building these luxury estates.

In some…

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You’ve  heard by now that on Sunday the 7th of September the federal government essentially took over control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two main GSEs (government sponsored enterprises) charged with making money available in the secondary mortgage market so our financial world can turn round and round. 

 Here’s a very general nutshell of how this system works:  A-Z Bank lends Billy and Sally 100K to purchase their first home (we’re using easy numbers here ).  A-Z Bank doesn’t have infinite funds, lets say they have 1M dollars to lend out to people.  They can only make 10 loans at 100K each right?  Well, then what?  A-Z Bank will sell those 10 loans to Fannie/Freddie and then they will have 1M to lend out again.  Along the way A-Z will have made a…

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I've been reading blogs and articles from other realtors suggesting that the market has so called "bottomed" and the surge in recent sales. The word "bottomed" is a nice word that so called real estate and Wall Street gurus came up with to help lure people back into the markets. I find that very funny seeing that foreclosures in the first 2 weeks of April there have been more foreclosures filed than in the whole month of March; which was a record month. People tend to blame the media for everything. It's funny because I didn't hear anyone complaining when the media told all the good news about real estate during the boom.

 The articles about the many Americans buying multiple homes and making a hundred grand before they made there first mortgage payment…

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For many reasons including the weather, lifestyle and golf, Phoenix and Scottsdale have been a popular  vacation home destination for Canadians for many years. Recently we have seen these numbers skyrocket due to the weak U.S. dollar and declining real estate market and potential for so called "deals".   

Canadians still have to be aware of what they are purchasing and the intent of that purchase. If you are searching for a "pure" investment property you have to make sure you will be able to have significant cash flow on that property. Breaking even or losing money every month in a declining market is not good business sense. Your money may be better invested elsewhere. Fringe area properties in cities like Avondale, Goodyear, Buckeye, City of Maricopa,… Read Full Post

For many reasons including the weather, lifestyle and golf, Phoenix and Scottsdale have been a popular  vacation home destination for Canadians for many years. Recently we have seen these numbers skyrocket due to the weak U.S. dollar and declining real estate market and potential for so called "deals".   

Canadians still have to be aware of what they are purchasing and the intent of that purchase. If you are searching for a "pure" investment property you have to make sure you will be able to have significant cash flow on that property. Breaking even or losing money every month in a declining market is not good business sense. Your money may be better invested elsewhere. Fringe area properties in cities like Avondale, Goodyear, Buckeye, City of Maricopa,… Read Full Post

For many reasons including the weather, lifestyle and golf, Phoenix and Scottsdale have been a popular  vacation home destination for Canadians for many years. Recently we have seen these numbers skyrocket due to the weak U.S. dollar and declining real estate market and potential for so called "deals".   

Canadians still have to be aware of what they are purchasing and the intent of that purchase. If you are searching for a "pure" investment property you have to make sure you will be able to have significant cash flow on that property. Breaking even or losing money every month in a declining market is not good business sense. Your money may be better invested elsewhere. Fringe area properties in cities like Avondale, Goodyear, Buckeye, City of Maricopa,… Read Full Post

For many reasons including the weather, lifestyle and golf, Phoenix and Scottsdale have been a popular  vacation home destination for Canadians for many years. Recently we have seen these numbers skyrocket due to the weak U.S. dollar and declining real estate market and potential for so called "deals".  

  Canadians still have to be aware of what they are purchasing and the intent of that purchase. If you are searching for a "pure" investment property you have to make sure you will be able to have significant cash flow on that property. Breaking even or losing money every month in a declining market is not good business sense. Your money may be better invested elsewhere. Fringe area properties in cities like Avondale, Goodyear, Buckeye, City of Maricopa,… Read Full Post

For many reasons including the weather, lifestyle and golf, Phoenix and Scottsdale have been a popular  vacation home destination for Canadians for many years. Recently we have seen these numbers skyrocket due to the weak U.S. dollar and declining real estate market and potential for so called "deals".     Canadians still have to be aware of what they are purchasing and the intent of that purchase. If you are searching for a "pure" investment property you have to make sure you will be able to have significant cash flow on that property. Breaking even or losing money every month in a declining market is not good business sense. Your money may be better invested elsewhere. Fringe area properties in cities like Avondale, Goodyear, Buckeye, City of Maricopa,… Read Full Post