Scottsdale Arizona Real Estate Blog

by William Hermann – Oct. 8, 2008 10:51 AM
The Arizona Republic

Merchants on Mill Avenue have said it for years, many folks in Tempe have long believed it and now the American Planning Association has recognized it:

Mill Avenue is a great street.

The Washington, D.C.-based association dedicated to community planning announced Wednesday that Mill Avenue has been designated one of the 10 Great Streets for 2008 through its Great Places in America program.

“It’s great to be recognized nationally for what we knew locally,” Nancy Hormann, president of the Mill Avenue District, said.

She said that Mill was being recognized because “it’s real.”

“Mill Avenue has an excellent, authentic urban environment and it’s not a mall,” she said. “It’s a great downtown street that is a genuine community gathering place.”

Mayor Hugh Hallman praised Mill as a “picturesque reminder of Tempe’s rich history,” and said he believes that Tempe “is leading the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan area in quality urban development with Mill Avenue as its functional and symbolic heart.”

Vic Linoff, who owns one of the historic buildings on Mill Avenue and has been an observer of the scene for 35 years, said the honor comes at an important time.

“Every level of our economy is suffering but this honor tells people that Mill Avenue is still alive,” he said. “We knew we have something great here but it’s great to have an outside observer tell you that you have something great.”

Xiao Wang, 20, an Arizona State University student from China, said the first time she walked over to the street she found it, “most exciting, very interesting, very friendly and charming.”

She said she also was fascinated by, “the many very friendly young people who come here and like to have parties.”

www.theholmgroupaz.com

Oct. 8, 2008 10:17 AM

WASHINGTON – Pending home sales rose 7.4 percent from July to August, an unexpected piece of positive news for the battered U.S. housing market.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes rose to 93.4 from an upwardly revised July reading of 87. The reading was the highest since June 2007.

Home sales are considered pending when the seller has accepted an offer, but the deal has not yet closed. Typically there is a one- to two-month lag before a sale is completed.

Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR had predicted the index would fall to 84.9.

The index, which sunk to a record low of 83 in March, stood at 85.8 in August 2007.

Sales are picking up in places that have seen the most severe declines in housing prices – including California, Florida Nevada and Arizona, plus Rhode Island and the Washington, D.C. area, said Lawrence Yun, the trade group’s chief economist. Still, Yun does not expect home prices to rebound until next year and only expects a modest gain of 2 to 3 percent in 2009.

A major unknown is how the worldwide financial crisis and economic slump will affect the housing market.

Despite numerous efforts by the Federal Reserve to encourage banks to lend more, lenders have kept tight reins on mortgage lending, and average rates on 30-year mortgages have remained over 6 percent for most of the year.

The latest effort by the central bank came Wednesday, when the Fed and six other major central banks around the world slashed interest rates Wednesday in an attempt to prevent a mushrooming financial crisis from becoming a global economic meltdown.

The Fed reduced a key rate from 2 percent to 1.5 percent. In Europe, which also has been hard hit by the financial crisis, the Bank of England cut its rate by half a point to 4.5 percent and the European Central Bank sliced its rate by half a point to 3.75 percent. Also cutting rates were the central banks of China, Canada, Sweden, and Switzerland.

There’s no guarantee, though, that mortgage rates will match the Fed’s cut.

That’s because long-term interest rates, which influence 30-year mortgages, don’t always move in sync with the Fed’s action, which lowered the interest rate banks charge each other on overnight loans.

However, the Fed action will reduce borrowing costs almost immediately for U.S. bank customers whose home equity and other floating-rate loans are tied to the prime interest rate. Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other banks cut their prime rate by half a point to 4.5 percent after the Fed announcement.

www.theholmgroupaz.com