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

by William Hermann – Oct. 7, 2008 10:12 AM
The Arizona Republic

The Valley’s most expensive apartments open this month, and anyone with $4,500 to $6,000 per month can see them now at Grigio Contemporary Apartment Living on the north shore of Tempe Town Lake.

Panoramic views of the lake fill the floor to ceiling windows in the Lofts Tower Suites at Grigio.

Hayden Daughters, 26, recently moved into one of the tower suites. Daughters said he is an independent contractor with ACN Digital Phone Service and he markets video phones.

“My girlfriend and I each work seven days a week at our jobs, and after a long day working we really enjoy sitting and just looking at the view, relaxing, being by the water . . . we love it,” he said.

Daughters is typical of many of Grigio’s residents, general manager Liz Schloss said.

“We have a lot of entrepreneurs like Hayden, lots of very, very busy people doing their own thing, and who find that what we offer is perfect for their life,” she said.

What Grigio has to offer isn’t as much costly luxury – there are also $899 studio apartments – as it is “our desire to meet your every need,” Schloss said.

“Our motto is ‘Your Wish, Our Pleasure’ and we mean it; we offer, in an apartment setting, almost any service a resort has,” she said. “We have people who are so busy they depend on us to do their dry cleaning, send them up a cup of coffee, go into their apartment and chill a bottle of wine before they get home, provide maid service, cook them a hamburger and send it up, turn down their bed . . . you name it, we do it.”

The lifestyle appears to have some appeal. During a time when many apartment complexes have giant signs outside offering free rent for a month or other special deals, Grigio is almost full.

Grigio opened its first units last year and when the final coat of paint is on the last apartment in a few weeks, it will have a total of 523 units. Schloss said there are currently 487 apartments completed and 460 of those are rented out, for a 94-percent occupancy rate.

Daughters said that while he and his girlfriend enjoy the amenities at Grigio, there are other benefits that are more important to them.

“This place right by the 202 and 101 freeways, and it’s easy to get to. They have a big, really nice lounge where I can entertain clients, and they have a conference room where I can have meetings,” he said. “And there is a prestige about it here that works well for me. I tell people I live in Grigio and they say, ‘Really?!’ And I say I live in a Tower Suite and they say, ‘Oh! You live in the tower!’ I have clients – and friends – who would really like to live here.

“But it’s funny. The first thing my friends ask is, ‘How much does it cost?’”

www.theholmgroupaz.com