Archive for March, 2010

AZ Central – CithNorth foreclosure sale postponed

Published March 30, 2010 Desert Ridge - CityNorth , Phoenix , Real Estate , Real Estate Articles Leave a Comment

by Michael Clancy – Mar. 30, 2010 01:49 PM
The Arizona Republic

A foreclosure sale of CityNorth’s High Street that was scheduled for Wednesday was postponed at the last minute.

The sale now will take place on June 2.

The sale was postponed at the request of the lender, Capmark Financial. Capmark, which is in bankruptcy, filed foreclosure against the owners of CityNorth in late December.

The CityNorth group, which includes the Klutznick Co. and Related Urban Development, owes more than $290 million to Capmark.

No reason was given for the postponement.

High Street, the initial phase of the 144-acre project at 56th Street and Loop 101 in northeast Phoenix, opened in November 2008. Subsequent phases were supposed to open annually, but the economic slump put an end to those plans.

High Street includes apartments, offices, restaurants and retail.

Currently, future work at CityNorth is on hold, pending financing for new phases.

USA Today – Expanded mortgage aid should cut foreclosures

Published March 30, 2010 Blogroll , Real Estate , Real Estate Articles Leave a Comment

by Stephanie Armour – Mar. 29, 2010 09:29 AM
USA Today

The Obama administration’s revamped mortgage program may help more borrowers keep their homes, but economists say it could also delay foreclosures that can’t be prevented.

The program requires lenders to reduce mortgage payments for three to six months for unemployed homeowners. It also encourages mortgage servicers to consider reducing principal for borrowers who stay current on their loans.

In addition, some homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth may be able to refinance into loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration.

The changes are designed to offer help to more borrowers than are getting aid under the existing program. But unemployed homeowners, for example, could still find themselves facing foreclosure if they remain unemployed when their forbearance period runs out.

“In six months, the lender will still have a non-performing loan and the borrower will still have a loan they can’t pay,” says Sylvia Alayon, vice president of operations for the Consumer Mortgage Audit Center, which does audits for lenders. “Foreclosures are still going to rise.”

About 2.8 million households received a foreclosure notice in 2009, and the number is projected to top 3 million this year, according to RealtyTrac. Close to 4.5 million first mortgage loans are in the foreclosure process or are at least 90 days delinquent.

But there is an upside. By spreading foreclosures over a longer period, home prices decline over a longer stretch, says Mark Zandi, at Moody’s Economy.com.

If a flood of foreclosures hit at once, prices would drop more drastically.

Without changes to the government’s program, only an estimated 500,000 foreclosures would be avoided. Zandi estimates that the changes could spare between 1 million and 1.5 million homeowners from foreclosure.

Other economists agree that the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) delays some foreclosures, but that’s not necessarily a bad policy.

“What policymakers are doing is telling lenders they have to look at every loan through the lens of HAMP, and all that does is buy us time,” say Ajay Rajadhyaksha, head of U.S. fixed income strategy at Barclays Capital. “It’s probably the right policy perspective … the price drop is lesser.”

AZ Central – Cith North’s High Street faces foreclosure sale

Published March 30, 2010 Blogroll , Desert Ridge - CityNorth , Phoenix , Real Estate Articles Leave a Comment

by Michael Clancy – Mar. 30, 2010 11:09 AM
The Arizona Republic

The Klutznick Co. and Related Urban Development could lose their stakes in CityNorth’s High Street on Wednesday.

A trustee’s sale is scheduled on the property as the result of loan defaults totaling $290.5 million. Capmark Finance foreclosed on the property in December.

Attorney Scott Klundt, who is handling the sale, said the sale could be postponed. He said he has had conversations with representatives of the lender that lead him to suspect a delay, but he could not say for sure.

The sale would involve only High Street, a three-block development of restaurants, shops, offices and apartments. It is the only completed portion of the CityNorth project, which has been stalled because of the economy.

CityNorth is at 56th Street and Loop 101 in northeast Phoenix’s Desert Ridge area.

The foreclosure is believed to be the largest commercial foreclosure in state history.

Unknown at this time is whether anyone will step into the void. Neither Related nor Klutznick have made any announcements regarding bankruptcy or refinancing, which would halt the sale. No other parties have made their interest known publicly.

Should the sale take place and no bidders surface, High Street would become the property of the lender.

High Street opened in late 2008, but since then, several big retailers have put their plans on hold, and financing and construction of subsequent phases have not taken place.

The idea that financing would be available once a state Supreme Court case was finished – in CityNorth’s favor – has proven to be false. The sale is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the law firm Quarles and Brady, 2 N. Central Ave.

AZ Central – Bank of America to lower mortgage principal

Published March 25, 2010 Blogroll , Real Estate , Real Estate Articles Leave a Comment

by J. Craig Anderson – Mar. 25, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

A decision by Bank of America’s home-loan subsidiary to begin systematically lowering the principal balance on an estimated 45,000 customers’ onerous mortgage loans has left some wondering if it’s the start of a broader trend.

Less than 1 percent of the country’s estimated 11.3 million underwater mortgage borrowers are eligible for the program, announced Wednesday, but it could spark other lenders to do likewise, one Arizona State University finance professor said.

“I think this is going to spread – that’s the big news,” ASU professor Herb Kaufman said.

Kaufman’s former employer, government-sponsored mortgage guarantor Fannie Mae, told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that it was considering a similar move to cut loan balances for the most deeply troubled homeowners.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America’s program would apply only to borrowers who owe more than 120 percent of their home’s current market value and would be limited to those customers with certain adjustable-rate and high-interest mortgages.

Nationwide, about 25 percent of all homeowners are “underwater,” meaning that they owe more than the home is worth, according to recent figures from First American CoreLogic, a real-estate data firm in Santa Ana, Calif.

In Arizona, that figure is closer to 50 percent, according to the firm’s analysis.

Still, that doesn’t mean Arizona homeowners should wait by the phone for their lender to call with the good news, said Tanya Wheeless, president and CEO of the Arizona Bankers Association.

“The Bank of America program is not going to help everyone, nor is it a program that is likely to be replicated,” Wheeless said. “There is no groundswell.”

Wheeless said the specter of mass mortgage default probably would prevent most lenders from slashing loan balances, the logic being that the promise of a principal reduction would encourage more borrowers to stop paying.

Even in the housing slump’s darkest hours, the nation’s overall default rate for home mortgages has remained in the single digits.

The national default rate was only 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 despite much financial hardship and widespread anger toward lenders, according to a recent study by real-estate services firm TransUnion, based in Chicago.

The incidence of borrowers voluntarily leaving their mortgaged homes in the fourth quarter was about 24 percent, according to CoreLogic; it was almost 50 percent in Arizona.

Even with that many people walking away, either voluntarily or by force, lenders have made few changes to their loan-modification programs, Wheeless said.

Most loan modifications focus on lowering monthly mortgage payments by lowering the interest rate

or stretching the repayment term over 40 or even 50 years. Bank of America acquired leading subprime lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

In many cases, the bank servicing a mortgage lacks the authority to lower its principal balance, Wheeless said, because the loan itself is backed by a private investor or another bank.

But more than anything, she said, lowering a past-due borrower’s loan principal just doesn’t feel right to most lenders.

“It’s not something that would be accepted wholesale by the lending industry,” she said.

Kaufman said he would not be surprised if the mounting political pressure to help struggling homeowners forced banks out of that comfort zone.

“There is clearly a political gain to be gotten from implementing a program like this,” he said.

AZ Central – Chateaux on Central sold for $7 million

Published March 24, 2010 Blogroll , Phoenix , Real Estate Leave a Comment

by Catherine Reagor, The Arizona Republic – Mar. 23, 2010 04:54 PM
The Arizona Republic

Phoenix’s cluster of brick minimansions called Chateaux on Central has a new owner. Wisconsin-based MSI West Investments paid $7 million for the 21 homes with elevators and rooftop terraces.

The high-profile project was started during the housing boom. Then, plans called for the homes, some with turrets and wine cellars, to each sell for $2.8 million and higher. The current deal breaks down to less than $350,000 a home.

Chateaux on Central, at Central Avenue and Palm Lane, has been tied up in Mortgages Ltd.’s financial problems for the past few years. When the original lender, Desert Hills Bank, filed to foreclose in 2007, Mortgages Ltd. took over with a $65 million financing deal. Then, Mortgages Ltd. was forced into bankruptcy by its creditors and investors in June 2008, and Chateaux on Central had been stalled ever since.

Chateaux’s new owner intends to unveil its plans for the development soon. Central Phoenix neighbors of the project, including many office tenants on Central Avenue, will be happy to see the homes completed.

“We are very aware that the eyes of the community have been focused on this project for quite some time and that, with the acquisition, comes a tremendous responsibility to provide a top-quality development,” said Bill Schmitz, president of MSI West Investments, which paid cash for Chateaux on Central.

MSI West Investments is a division of the food-industry firm Main Street Ingredients of La Crosse, Wis. Joe Morales of Arizona Realty ONE Group has been hired by MSI West to market and sell the homes.

Chateaux on Central is so high profile that it was featured in last year’s New York Time’s list of “Ruins of the Second Gilded Age.”

Mortgage-fraud summit

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will be in Phoenix on Thursday for a mortgage-fraud summit. The event is part of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force formed by President Barack Obama last year.

The Phoenix event will be the second summit for the task force. The first was held in Miami in February.

Mortgage fraud

began to plague Phoenix’s housing market during the boom, when illegal cash-back deals were happening in almost every neighborhood. Now, most fraud schemes in the Valley involve foreclosures.

A diverse group of Arizona market watchers, fraud experts, state and federal regulators and prosecutors as well as real-estate leaders have been invited to Phoenix’s mortgage-fraud event.

USA Today – More investors with cash are buying houses

Published March 22, 2010 Blogroll Leave a Comment

by Stephanie Armour – Mar. 22, 2010 10:05 AM
USA Today

More home buyers are snapping up properties with cash, a trend driven in large part by investors returning to the market after four years of falling prices around the country.

The share of home sales involving all-cash transactions was 26% in January, up from 18% a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. The figures come from a survey of members about their most recent transactions. Many home buyers also are paying cash, but investors are largely using cash so they can avoid paying interest charges on loans and get a larger return on their investment.

Other NAR data also show a pickup in investment activity.

Home purchases made by buyers identified as investors climbed to 17% in January, up from 15% in December and 12% in November.

“We bottomed out in 2008, and in late 2009, prices stabilized and investors have returned,” says Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American CoreLogic. “It’s a different type of investor going after foreclosed properties and expecting to hold on for longer time frames.”

Many investors say they’re financing their purchases with cash on hand, rather than borrowing.

Evan Spinrod of San Francisco bought three rental properties in November and February and now owns 21 in four states. The rent he collects gives him an 8.5% annual return on his investment. Some of his homes are worth about $165,000. “I’m still looking,” Spinrod says. “You can’t build these houses for the prices they’re selling them. I’ve always seen that the real wealth was in real estate. People have been sitting on cash, and there’s no interest from the bank (to pay).”

Leonard Baron, a real estate professor at San Diego State University, has bought three homes with cash in the San Diego area in the past eight months, ranging in price from $100,000 to $130,000. He rents the properties.

Baron says now is an ideal time to make such purchases. “It’s because prices have dropped so much and rents really haven’t,” he says. “The deals were unbelievable.”

Some Realtors also say they’re seeing increased investor activity.

“Flippers, rehabbers, investors … are, in fact, buying,” says Lisa Johnson, with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Haverhill, Mass. “I’m getting builders who have stopped building and are instead buying up condos and single-family homes to fix them up and sell them. It’s a neat change I haven’t seen in four years.”

All-cash purchases also reflect a growing number of investors buying higher-end properties without credit, says NAR spokesman Walter Molony. That’s a sign that some investors see real estate prices as having nowhere to go but up. All-cash offers give buyers a competitive edge on rival offers — even higher ones — that are dependent on financing. Cash deals can close faster and are less likely to fall through.

“You have to have cash to be able to close quickly and have negotiating power. Cash is king,” says Tanya Marchiol, president of Phoenix-based Team Investments, which buys about 70 properties a month with cash it raises from investors. “We do want to flip it or generate cash flow (through renting it out). Now is the time to buy for cash flow. We know the market is going to rebound.”

Some investors say the current real estate market is an ideal time to buy because homes are so low priced, they are bound to hold their value.

That’s the philosophy of Jim McClelland of Tinley Park, Ill.

He is buying about 120 to 150 entry-level homes in the Chicago area this year and owns a total of about 300 properties.

He says now is a good time to buy because properties going into foreclosure are no longer just one-bedroom, fixer-uppers but nicer, split-level brick homes with more bedrooms that will probably appreciate to a higher value.

That’s because so many prime-rate borrowers who bought more expensive homes have gone into foreclosure.

He puts about $60,000 into upgrading a property, then rents it out.

“Do I think this year will be a better time to invest than in 2009? Yes,” McClelland says. “There have always been foreclosures. The difference now is you get a better home for the same kind of money. You’re sitting on better inventory. People get into real estate for financial independence. It’s not a quick fix. It appreciates. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

AZ Central – Home values in Phoenix metro may fall again because of shadow inventory

Published March 22, 2010 Blogroll , Real Estate Articles Leave a Comment

by Catherine Reagor – Mar. 20, 2010 11:06 PM
The Arizona Republic

Phoenix area home prices could experience another drop in value because of tens of thousands of properties that could flood the market in 2010.

This shadow inventory, located across metropolitan Phoenix, is threatening the recovery of the real estate market and overall Arizona economy.

It includes an unknown number of pending foreclosures, bank-owned homes bought at foreclosure auctions by investors who might try for a quick sale, thousands of homes foreclosed on by banks that have not yet put them up for resale and homes that will go into foreclosure after their owners abandon them and walk away from their mortgages.

The housing market has an inventory of homes for sale. But the shadow inventory is the number of additional, bargain-priced homes that could be added to the market anytime this year, a number of homes beyond any regular turnover in home ownership. These new listings – most tied to foreclosures – could flood the market and further drag down values.

Economists and housing analysts are worried that if this inventory of what would become bargain-priced homes enters the market in the coming year, it could cause another drop in home prices in Arizona. Phoenix home prices began to tick up during the second half of last year after recovering from the first round of cheap foreclosure homes dumped on the market.

California, Nevada and Florida also face an oversupply of shadow inventory.

What also concerns market-watchers is that no one can accurately predict how big the shadow inventory is or when any of these houses will hit the market.

Shadow inventory is the most feared and misunderstood term in the real-estate market now, even more than “bubble” during the housing peak.

“Phoenix’s shadow inventory is very real and very scary when you think about all the homes that could flood the market,” Arizona housing analyst RL Brown said. “Some people are in denial about the area’s shadow inventory, but by being informed on what could impact the market, we can all make better real-estate decisions.”

Phoenix’s shadow inventory includes the following:

• Homes lenders have taken back. More than 5,000 homes that have been taken back by lenders have not yet been listed for resale.

• Homes that homeowners lose. The homes of thousands of homeowners who have unsuccessfully tried to obtain loan modifications could soon fall into foreclosure. Another wave of homes bought with adjustable-rate mortgages also will start resetting this year, forcing still more foreclosures.

• Homes that homeowners abandon. Anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent of homeowners now owe more than their homes are worth. Many can still afford their mortgage payments but may choose to walk away. Potentially, thousands more homes could be listed for sale by homeowners who aren’t underwater but are still giving up on the market.

• Homes investors may try to flip. More than 50,000 inexpensive foreclosure homes were bought in the past 15 months by investors, who could try to resell them anytime.

Phoenix’s shadow inventory could cause more damage to the area’s already struggling housing market. How much depends on the pending actions of the key players involved.

Market psychology

Part of the reason the shadow inventory is so feared is that it’s so uncertain. There’s no way to tell what current homeowners – residents, lenders or investors – might do next.

Among the residents, many are pursuing loan modifications that could keep them in their homes, but those are far from a sure thing.

“Loan modifications aren’t working like the government expected,” said Arizona economist and real-estate investor Elliott Pollack. “Investors bought up a lot of foreclosure homes last year, but those homes will soon be back on the market.”

What looms larger for Pollack, however, is the uncertain number of people who may just walk away from their mortgages. “The real fear factor though is how many homeowners will give up.”

A growing number of homeowners who can afford their mortgages but now have loans far higher than the value of their homes are frustrated and considering walking away. Some cannot refinance or sell. Others run the numbers and see little value in sticking with their mortgage in this market. The scale and impact of this group of the shadow inventory is causing the most concern because it is impossible to predict.

Among the lenders, many are bogged down with an overload of foreclosures and requests for loan modifications. Those backlogs of homes constitute a large part of Phoenix’s shadow inventory. What they do with these homes could help the market or further damage it.

So far, lenders are opting for foreclosure over loan modifications in most cases. Recent federal figures showed only 15 percent of the homeowners eligible for loan modifications have received one. A wave of adjustable-rate and negative-amortization loans taken out during the boom that will begin resetting this year will add to the growing list of homeowners facing foreclosure and asking for loan modifications. Some of these borrowers will see their mortgage payments climb by as much as 50 percent this year.

Any homeowner who doesn’t receive a loan modification or can’t sell the home through a short sale can be one more foreclosure in the making, adding to the shadow inventory.

Lenders know they can take back Phoenix homes through foreclosures and get them off their books quickly by slashing prices and reselling them to investors. They have been doing this for the past 15 months.

Uncertainty about what those investors will do with the more than 50,000 foreclosure homes they already have bought also stokes fears about a shadow inventory. Most foreclosure homes bought by investors have been turned into rentals. Now, there are so many rental properties competing for tenants, rents are falling. If new investors find they can’t make money off rentals, some are likely to try to resell those homes to try to make a quick profit.

But Phoenix real-estate data analyst Tom Ruff of the Information Market doesn’t think investors will dump too many homes on the market this year because most of them paid cash for the foreclosure homes and don’t have to count on high rents to make money.

“I don’t think Phoenix’s shadow inventory will cause another crash,” Ruff said. “But the housing market’s recovery is going to take longer and will be more drawn-out than many expected.”

Looming decisions

The danger of Phoenix’s shadow inventory can be averted through some key decisions by lenders, investors and homeowners.

If banks complete more government-backed loan modifications and refrain from selling the homes they take back through foreclosure all at once, it would keep another glut of low-priced homes from flooding the market.

If investors who paid cash for foreclosure homes can rent the properties and hold onto them for at least a few years, it would allow more of Phoenix’s inventory of foreclosure homes to sell first so prices can moderate and even start climbing.

What some homeowners decide will depend on how much help they get from their lenders. If a large number give their homes back to the lenders, that could have the biggest effect, driving prices down even further. But if lenders work with more homeowners who are underwater, either by helping them refinance or by cutting some of the loans’ principal, it could convince more people to stay and continue to pay their mortgages.

The number of homes listed for sale is already climbing. There are about 42,500 homes on the market in metro Phoenix, according to housing analyst Mike Orr’s Cromford Report. That is up from 40,000 in December. Metro Phoenix’s median home-sales price has been hovering around $130,000 during the second half of 2009, but it has started to fall again. The area’s median sale price is now about $127,000.

An additional 50,000 inexpensive homes – the number of pending foreclosures in Phoenix – dumped on the market could drag a home valued at $125,000 down to $120,000, said national housing analyst Tim Sullivan of San Diego.

Still, the shadow inventory doesn’t have to mean more market damage, if residents, lenders and investors commit to helping the market instead of hurting it.

“If a bunch of foreclosure homes aren’t dumped on the market at once, and the current inventory of foreclosure homes can continue to slowly move through the system,” Sullivan said, “then prices will continue to level out.”

www.theholmgroupaz.com

AZ Central – Foreclosures take toll on central areas

Published March 22, 2010 Blogroll , Phoenix , Real Estate , Real Estate Articles Leave a Comment

by J. Craig Anderson – Mar. 21, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

The Valley’s foreclosure wave swept inward in 2009, moving from younger communities at its outer edge toward older, wealthier and more centrally located areas.

The hardest-hit community by far was in west-central Phoenix, where foreclosures in two ZIP codes, 85017 and 85019, accounted for at least 72 percent of all home-resale transactions – about 1,070 sales out of 1,315, according to the latest Valley home-values data from The Information Market. The previous year, foreclosures accounted for about 60 percent of the area’s sales.

Housing-industry groups such as the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals say that unscrupulous lenders continued to push predatory, subprime loans in west-central Phoenix well into late 2007 – months after mortgage brokers in other areas had discontinued their use.

As a result, foreclosure activity began almost immediately afterward and hasn’t slowed since.

The ZIP code with the highest percentage of foreclosure-related sales was 85034, in southeast Phoenix, where foreclosures made up 74 percent of activity. But the area’s transactions in 2009 totaled just 27, too small a number to produce statistically significant results.

Foreclosure activity continued to plague many of the more remote communities that already had suffered in 2008. For instance, 47 percent of 2009′s home-sales transactions in Queen Creek involved foreclosures, up from 34 percent the previous year, according to the data.

Areas of the Valley that had been relatively unaffected by foreclosures in 2008 got hit. In Paradise Valley, metro Phoenix’s wealthiest ZIP code of 85253, sales involving foreclosed homes increased from 4 percent in 2008 to 22 percent the following year.

AZ Central – SE Valley home values fare better than most in retro area

Published March 19, 2010 Blogroll , Phoenix , Real Estate , Real Estate Articles Leave a Comment

by Parker Leavitt – Mar. 19, 2010 10:24 AM
The Arizona Republic

Home prices across the Valley took another hard hit in 2009, but real-estate data show the Southeast Valley is still faring better than most parts of Phoenix and the West Valley.

Twenty-seven Maricopa County communities and 116 local ZIP codes all posted a decrease in home-sale prices in 2009, the third consecutive year of declines, according to data from Glendale-based the Information Market.

The median home price, including new and existing homes, fell by 18 percent in Gilbert and Chandler, 21 percent in Tempe, and 30 percent in Mesa.

By comparison, the median price in Phoenix plummeted 53 percent, to $90,000.

If there is a glimmer of hope buried within the somber statistics, it likely would be found in the Southeast Valley, experts say.

Good schools and close proximity to employment, retail centers and churches are helping the area weather the storm, said Jay Butler, associate professor of real estate at Arizona State University.

“It is a more stable area because it has some of the things you don’t see in other areas,” Butler said. “It has all the plusses.”

Of the 25 hardest-hit Valley ZIP codes, 23 were in Phoenix or the West Valley, and two were in west Mesa.

None of the 15 ZIP codes that roughly cover the areas of Tempe, Chandler and Gilbert was among the 50 hardest hit, and many of the most stable ZIP codes were found in the Southeast Valley.

“Chandler and Gilbert have been holding on pretty well,” Butler said. “They fell, but not as far as some of the others did.”

A flurry of real-estate activity has followed the drop in home prices, and the volume of home sales has picked up over the past year.

Nearly 7,000 homes were sold in Mesa in 2009, up 33 percent from the previous year. And more new homes were sold in Gilbert – 884 – than in any other Valley municipality.

Skyler Smith, 23, said he bought a home last year in Queen Creek because “we were looking for something close to work and school and also in a decent neighborhood.”

Smith bought the house in October with his wife, Kari. The couple now has a 4-month-old daughter, Ellie.

Smith said his house is around the corner from an elementary school, where his daughter can safely walk when she’s older.

“That’s going to be nice, being able to walk around the corner not having to worry about if she’s going to get in trouble or kidnapped,” he said.

The couple also looked at houses in Gilbert and Mesa, but said Phoenix was never an option.

“When I think of Phoenix, I also think of a rundown and full of crime kind of a city,” he said. “I don’t know if we would have wanted to go to a place like that.”

Butler said the Valley-wide acceleration in home buying last year can be attributed to the flood of inexpensive foreclosure properties now on the market.

Young families and first-time homebuyers are benefiting from the decline in home values, and an $8,000 federal tax rebate has also encouraged more low-end buying, experts say.

To some degree, greater activity in the real-estate marketplace can be taken as a positive sign, but the issue runs much deeper than that, Butler said.

“You really have to look at why people are buying in a certain area,” he said. “Are they actually moving in or just buying it to flip?”

Potential homebuyers need to be cautious and carefully examine the quality of a neighborhood before making a purchase, Butler said.

Unkempt yards, “For Rent” and foreclosure signs, and dark windows at night are all signs of a “forbidden zone,” he said.

Nearly 60 percent of homes sold in Glendale and 57 percent in Phoenix last year were foreclosures. In Mesa, foreclosures totaled about 45 percent of all home sales.

In Gilbert, Chandler and Tempe, the foreclosure percentages hovered around 30 percent.

“It’s a little bit less of an issue in the Southeast communities,” Butler said. “The key is that overall it’s a good location to live in.”

AZ Central – Camelback Manor adds luxury to assisted living

Published March 19, 2010 Blogroll , Paradise Valley , Real Estate , Real Estate Articles Leave a Comment

by Beth Duckett – Mar. 19, 2010 10:25 AM
The Arizona Republic

When clients visit Camelback Manor, they’re greeted by chandeliers, mountain views and a chef who once catered to Frank Sinatra.

The soon-to-open assisted-living home in Paradise Valley is “setting the bar at a whole new standard,” said Jeff Howard, a manor spokesman.

The home highlights an ongoing shift in post-retirement care, from the mundane to the luxurious. Baby Boomers are seeking out world-class cuisine, yoga and daily massages for themselves or their parents. Environments feel more like small resorts than end-of-life facilities.

“We dote on clients, from our chef to personal care” said Howard, a licensed nurse.

As people are living longer and moving away from skilled nursing homes, the demand for assisted or independent living has expanded, said Ellen Rosen, a spokeswoman for Sierra Pointe retirement community in north Scottsdale.

Rosen said people are living longer and prefer the social interaction that comes with assisted living, which is considered a notch below nursing homes in terms of medical care.

Baby Boomer adults, seeking retirement living for their parents, are “attracted to current decor and surroundings like a coffee bar in the lobby, warm inviting library and attractive hair salons,” she said.

“They project where they would like to live,” Rosen said.

At Camelback Manor, guests will be served meals in a fine dining room, and enjoy limo service and views of nearby Camelback Mountain, in addition to a nurse’s care.

The 9,500-square-foot home, owned by Assisted Living America, LLC, is set to open this spring with a reservation-only open house on Thursday.A large population of older, well-to-do folks has higher expectations for living, Rosen said, including the World War II generation.

” ‘Old age home’ is still an old expression, and both 80-somethings and Baby Boomer adult kids have unpleasant memories of how grandma lived. Today’s communities go out of their way not to be like that,” she said.

At the 38-dwelling Sierra Pointe luxury community, residents live by a social model of assisted living.

Lois Hershkowitz, 84, moved to Sierra Pointe 10 years ago after her husband passed away. She said she wanted to be closer to family.

“If I want company, there is plenty around. If I don’t, I have a beautiful apartment,” said Hershkowitz, a former Tucson resident.

Hershkowitz said the community fills a need for socialization. About 50 residents are encouraged to spend time with each other, rather than in their rooms, Rosen said.

An activities coordinator and a bus driver ensure residents get a healthy dose of things to do, whether it means visiting the mall or going on a scenic drive.

“We have different outings we go to, (such as) the theater,” Hershkowitz said.

Howard said Camelback Manor, a 4-year-old residence converted into a group home, will offer yoga, movie nights and games as part of an activities schedule, similar to Sierra Pointe.

He called the prices “affordable” when compared to the quality of service.

Four bedroom suites, each with a bathroom and closet, start at $3,950 a month for semi-private rooms and $5,950 a month for private rooms.

A master suite – the “crème de la crème” of the manor’s dwellings – has a Jacuzzi, his-and-her closets and mountain-view windows advertised from $7,950 a month.

In 2009, the cost for a single unit in an assisted living facility was estimated at $2,825 monthly, or $33,903 annually, according to a survey by insurer Genworth Financial Inc.

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