The Tucson Real Estate Market Report

I just posted quite a long blog article yesterday, titled "The State of Tucson Real Estate in January 2009." This blog included many newsworthy updates from NAR (The National Association of Realtors), as well as some news from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about letting renters of foreclosed homes stay on after the owner is foreclosed on.

At any rate, I started thinking that readers would like to access the Long Realty Tucson area housing report, as this report contains a great deal of factual information about what the local market is doing. If you click on this link, you can directly access the housing report for January 2009 for the Tucson real estate market. Basically, inventory is down, and sales are up. We can attribute this to a few different factors, the main one being that buyer demand is picking up. The fact that interest rates and prices have both come down significantly (interest rates are at 30 year lows, and prices are at or below 2004- prior to the boom levels), is helping to fuel buyer demand.

Existing hom sales are up for this reason. This has already happened in California (and they boomed before we did in Tucson). When I was visiting San Diego last August, I read an article in the San Diego paper that stated 40% of all sales in the summer of 2008 in San Diego were foreclosures. I thought that was a ridiculously high level, and I never thought that we'd see that many foreclosures here in Tucson. However, in November 2008, approximately 32% of all the sales were foreclosed properties. This shows that investors are taking advantage of some value in the market. Indeed, there is value out there. I predict that we may even start seeing some investors flipping homes in then coming months, as many first time home buyers do not have the cash to fix up a home that's been trashed by a foreclosed owner. They would rather purchase something that is move in ready, and as long as they can afford the monthly payment and also come up with the down payment (which is 3.5% for FHA buyers), they would be ecstatic to get a move-in ready home.

All of this is great news for Tucson home buyers. If you are in the market for a home, or are thinking that now is a good time to buy-- you are right! If you're buying a home for your primary residence, you may wish to avoid short sales, as they can take several months to close, and I have heard horror stories of the banks pulling the plug on the deal at the last minute. However, if you're not going to live in the home (and are buying it as an investment), a short sale may be well worth your while to look into. Bank owned properties can be great deals, but the majority of them need a lot of work, and it's like the quote from "Forrest Gump," "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." It is sort of like peeling an onion when you purchase a bank owned property, as there is no telling what the foreclosed owner may have done to the house out of anger of losing their home. This is not always the case though. I sold a bank owned home in November that was built in 2006, and it was just like new. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, and my buyer got a fabulous deal. The buyer actually got into the home for only $4,000, with an FHA loan, as the bank seller (Freddie Mac) had a special deal where they pay all of the buyer's closing costs.

At any rate, if you are thinking of buying or selling a home in Tucson, please don't hesitate to give me a call. I can honestly say in my 10 years of selling real estate in Tucson, I never thought we'd see a market like this-- but it is a great time to buy!

Written by Sarah Ley,
BSBA, ABR, CRS, CNHSA,
Realtor with Long Realty Company
Direct: (520) 404-0544
http://www.sarahley.longrealty.com/
sley@longrealty.com