Tag Archives: Selling a Historic Phoenix Home

Tuft & Needle Buys Historic Paper Heart Building on Grand Avenue

Mattress retail startup and Phoenix cheerleaders Tuft & Needle have purchased an historic and iconic building on Grand Avenue.

Owners JT Marino and Daehee Park bought a 6,000-square-foot building at 750 Grand Avenue, most recently known as the Paper Heart, a performance space, music venue, gallery, coffee shop and bar.

The building opened in the 1960s as a Quebedeaux Chevrolet, and was designed by Victor Gruen, the Austrian architect known as “the father of the American shopping mall.”

The Paper Heart was opened by Scott Sanders in 2000 and ran until the end of 2007. The space was one of the early participants of downtown Phoenix’s First Fridays art walk.

Steph Carrico and JRC, owners of the Trunk Space — a long-standing Grand Ave. music venue that has since moved— were involved in the Paper Heart as well.

Park and Marino heard about the space and its history from the Grand Avenue community, and decided to purchase it to preserve the building and the lower Grand Avenue corridor, according to representatives.

The T&N headquarters is across the street on Grand Avenue.

Marino and Park then established Grand Paper Heart, LLC in fall 2016 to purchase the building, which has a full cash value of $512,200, according to Maricopa County records.

T&N declined to disclose the purchase amount, and are not sure what they plan to do with the building.

“We just want to make sure while we’re investing in this area that the other buildings are preserved,” said company representatives.

Marino and Park were runners-up in the Phoenix Business Journal’s 2016 Businessperson of the Year.

Real estate around Grand Avenue is soaring and many believe it’s the next Roosevelt Row where all cool things happen as part of Garfield Historic District and Roosevelt Historic District. Districts near Grand Avenue like Woodland Historic District and Oakland Historic DIstrict are still hidden gems with values increasing more rapidly than other districts. These districts border the core of downtown Phoenix and are walking distance to the State Capitol and other government buildings.

If you’re interested in buying or selling a home in any of these districts or surrounding historic districts, call Laura Boyajian at (602) 400-0008, a Historic Phoenix Real Estate Specialist.

REPORT: Phoenix Ranked Second-Best Metro Area For Homeowners

Bankrate.com Aug 31, 2016

The Phoenix metro area is the second-best in the nation for homeowners, according to a Bankrate.com report released Wednesday.

Portland, Phoenix, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Minneapolis/St. Paul round out the best metropolitan areas for homeowners, according to the report. Bankrate.com is a leading aggregator of financial rate information and this marks their first time releasing such a report.

The study reviewed eight factors: home affordability; price appreciation; property taxes; homeowners’ insurance, energy and maintenance costs; foreclosures and how rapidly rents rose over the past six years for which data are available.

Phoenix ranked high on the list for several reasons, including strong home-price appreciation, few foreclosures and inexpensive homeowners’ insurance, according to the report.

“Phoenix was one of the best cities in all the categories we looked at,” said Claes Bell, Bankrate.com analyst. “We were looking to see which cities were the best for attainability, sustainability, affordability and if there was a rewarding financial benefit to owning a home in these areas.”

The Phoenix area scores fifth lowest on the scale of rent hedging, which is a way of measuring rent increases compared with the home price appreciation. In Phoenix, house prices have also been rising faster than rents over the past five years, contributing to the Valley’s high ranking. The Phoenix metro area had the tenth highest energy cost among the 50 metro areas, a reflection of high air conditioning bills during the summer months, according to Bankrate.com.

Home values plunged during the housing bust, but now they are recovering, according to Bankrate.com, and the pace of home appreciation in Phoenix in the last five years is second fastest among the 50 largest metro areas.

The greater Phoenix area also has bounced back from the foreclosure crisis. For the last three years the city has had the second lowest foreclosure rate among top metro areas.

“Builders stopped building during the housing bubble and now demand beats out supply,” Bell said. “Phoenix is no different in that way from the rest of the country. What’s different is the property tax rate and the affordability of the home itself. In cities like New York and L.A., housing costs are half to three-quarters of a person’s annual income.”

Strong home-price appreciation over the past five years is a common thread in Phoenix, Atlanta and Las Vegas. The Twin Cities’ best housing attributes are strong home-price appreciation and a dearth of foreclosures.

Hartford, Connecticut ranks last because of high carrying costs: It has above-average property tax, energy, homeowners’ insurance and maintenance fees. The New York City metro area is second-worst due to high property taxes, minimal home-price appreciation and expensive maintenance costs. Only Los Angeles (fourth-worst) prevented a northeastern sweep of the bottom five (Providence is third-worst and Buffalo is fifth from the rear), according to the report.

“Major cities in the middle of the country did really well in this ranking,” Bell said in a press release. “Out of the top 15 metro areas, only one is within 250 miles of an ocean. Homeowners in America’s largest coastal cities face a number of challenges, ranging from sky-high mortgage payments gobbling up an outsized portion of homeowners’ incomes to high property insurance rates, especially in hurricane-prone areas, and our ranking reflects that.

It’s a terrific time to buy or sell a home in the Phoenix Metro area.

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Today’s New Central and Downtown Phoenix Listings

Mansion by Former Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice is on the market

This Phoenix mansion designed by former Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice is on the market for $8.75 million

May 6, 2016, 8:15am MST

A Phoenix mansion designed by Vernon Swaback, one of the last living former apprentices to famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is for sale. View pictures.

And the 13,365-square-foot home can be yours for a cool $8.75 million, one of the priciest homes for sale in the city of Phoenix, according to Realtor.com.

The property at 15 Biltmore Estates Drive sits on about 1.67 acres and includes seven bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. The home abuts the Adobe Golf Course in the Biltmore neighborhood and features resort-like grounds, custom-made limestone columns and surfaces as well as Brazilian hand-scraped cherry wood floors, an expansive master suite, bar, pool and whole slew of other high-end amenities and features.

The property previously was on the market with a price higher than $9 million, but it was de-listed roughly a year ago before going back up for sale earlier this year.

The Numbers Are In and 2016 Is Off to a Good Start in Home Sales

We may be on the verge of spring, but housing and economic reports work on a bit of a lag time. We’ve only just gotten the major data reports for January, and it’s giving us a clear-eyed view of how the real estate market is measuring up this year.

Home sales in 2016 2016 Is off to a good start in home sales. And yeah, things are looking good.

Job creation—arguably the most important factor in housing demand—is moving apace. January saw 151,000 jobs created. That level of employment growth is below 2015’s monthly average, but unemployment is now near 10-year lows and is in line with the current macro forecast from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). This level of employment growth should translate into the 3% growth in housing sales we are expecting for the year.

Speaking of sales, January’s existing home sales report did not disappoint. Even though sales are taking longer to close, due to the implementation of new disclosure and closing forms and procedures, the pace grew 0.4% in January from December. Granted, that’s not a lot, but analysts had been expecting a decline. And from January 2015 to January 2016, existing home sales grew a solidly impressive 11%.

The increase in sales is resulting in continued tighter-than-tight supply—measured by NAR to be four months in January. For you non-economists out there, that metric measures the number of months it would take to sell the current inventory of available homes, at the current pace. Got it? Six to seven months’ worth of homes on the market is considered normal; four months is cray-cray.

This is driving prices higher and encouraging consumers who hope to buy this year to get started as soon as possible.

January’s new home sales and new home construction remained consistent with the pace of activity of the last several months. Still, the level of new construction still represents solid year-over-year growth, especially in single-family homes. The most encouraging sign: The median price of new homes is finally declining, as a result of the fact that builders are offering more affordable homes.

Finally, the most timely readings we can pass on come from our own observations at realtor.com that confirm that demand is growing rapidly at the start of the year, resulting in an acceleration in inventory movement that we typically do not see until March or April.

OK, not everything is rainbows and unicorns. The biggest negative trend impacting potential demand relates to the January and February declines in stock values, which have taken a toll on consumer confidence. But, even that negative trend has a silver lining: Mortgage rates are now substantially lower. The average 30-year conforming rate has stabilized at under 3.7%, giving buyers almost 5% more buying power than they had at the end of 2015, and strengthening their ability to meet the debt-to-income ratio requirement for a loan.

Net-net, pent-up demand appears stronger than any weakness caused by the financial markets. And the lower rates are encouraging would-be buyers to act sooner rather than later. With this strong start, 2016 should indeed see growth, but the biggest constraint will be the tight supply.

Courtesy Realtor.com

If you’re ready to get pre-approved for a home mortgage and start home shopping, give me a call or email today.

THE MORTGAGE TRICK THAT COULD SAVE YOU $100,000 OR MORE

Should you switch to a 15-year mortgage?

If paying off your house is a priority, you’ve obviously considered it. “One of the biggest benefits of a 15-year mortgage term is the ability to quickly pay off your home loan,” said Money Crashers. “This option is perfect if you plan to stay put and don’t want to pay your mortgage for a lengthy period of time.”

But even if you’re not planning to live in your home forever, a 15-year mortgage can be a great way to go because of the money saved. And we’re not talking about pennies. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“The 30-year fixed mortgage is practically an American archetype, the apple pie of financial instruments. It is the path that generations of Americans have taken to first-time home ownership. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, 86% of people applying for purchase mortgages in February 2015 opted for 30-year loans,” said Investopedia. “But many of those buyers might have been better served if they had opted instead for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, the 30-year’s younger, and less popular, sibling. A shorter-term loan means a higher monthly payment, which makes the 15-year mortgage seem less affordable. But, in fact, the shorter term actually makes the loan cheaper on several fronts.”

The savings is substantial

“Imagine a $300,000 loan, available at 4% for 30 years or at 3.25% for 15 years,” they said. “The combined effect of the faster amortization and the lower interest rate means that borrowing the money for just 15 years would cost $79,441, compared to $215,609 over 30 years, or nearly two-thirds less.”

According to The Mortgage Reports, going with a 15-year mortgage translates to a reduction in “the amount of mortgage interest paid over the loan’s life by $44,000 per $100,000 borrowed as compared to a 30-year loan. For loans at the conforming loan limit of $417,000, then, a homeowner would save $183,000 by using a 15-year mortgage to finance the home instead of using a 30-year one.”

That’s a lot of money. But it’s that higher monthly payment that is often the sticking point for many borrowers. The monthly payment on a 15-year loan will cost more than one that’s double in length for obvious reasons—you’re paying off more money in less time. But the two loan terms do not offer an apples-to-apples comparison because the interest rates for 15-year mortgages tend to be lower.

“15-year-loans are less risky for banks than 30-year loans, and because the money banks use to make shorter-term loans costs them less than the money they use to make longer-term loans, consumers pay a lower interest rate on a 15-year-mortgage — anywhere from a quarter of a percent to a full percent (or point) less,” said Investopedia. “And the government-supported agencies that finance most mortgages impose additional fees, called loan level price adjustments, which make 30-year mortgages more expensive.”

The monthly payment on the 30-yer mortgage referenced above is $1,432. On the 15-year loan, it comes out to $2,108. That steep increase is often a deterrent for borrowers – especially those who are more concerned with their current monthly input and output than potential long-term savings.

Doing it on your own

Of course, a 15-year mortgage isn’t the only way to pay your house off sooner. Making additional principal payments can eat away at your balance without tying you to a higher monthly payment. Even one extra payment per year can make a big difference.

“Making an extra mortgage payment each year (totaling 13 payments in a 12-month period) could reduce a 30-year mortgage loan to approximately 22 years,” said Nationwide.

“The most budget-friendly way to do this is to pay 1/12 extra each month. For example, by paying $975 each month on a $900 mortgage payment, you’ll have paid the equivalent of an extra payment by the end of the year.”

Overpaying also offers a shorter path to an equity position, so when you are ready to sell, you have more equity in your home and are in a greater buying position. And if you do get into a situation where you need cash you can always pull the equity out of your home.

If you’re on the fence and are thinking about buying a historic home in Phoenix, please call Laura B. Browse all historic Phoenix Districts and their homes for sale.

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Historic Districts Real Estate In Downtown and Central Phoenix

DOWNTOWN LIFE

Places to Live In Downtown and Central Phoenix

The downtown Phoenix scene has become re-energized in recent years with the arrival of several new mixed-use commercial buildings breathing new life into living downtown. The shopping, arts and dining scene isn’t too shabby either and is walking distance or a short light rail ride to many, many cool establishments. Central Phoenix, or CenPho, as the hipsters like to call it, is the heart of the ever-growing culture. Living in downtown or Central Phoenix is place to discover that great new restaurant, catch a play, or dance the night away at a downtown club.

The Downtown Phoenix Condo and Loft Scene

Metro Light Rail In Downtown Phoenix

The number of high-rises, mid-rises and low-rises being built, restored and renovated have been absolutely BOOMING in Central Phoenix! These buildings are old mixed in with new and provide amenities galore. Downtown Phoenix is the new home of loft traditions where space and creativity have been merging into stylistic, personalized urban expression. Many industrial buildings have been converted into desirable, luxurious, lofts or condominiums for your taking. If a single-family home is not for you but simple living is, (no yard responsibilities, etc.), then you’ve come to the right place. Or maybe you’re an artist looking to live where you work. I have ideas for you.

Here, you will find real-time, live listings of all Downtown, Central and North Phoenix condos for sale, Urban Lofts for sale, Condos in High-Rises for sale, and pretty much any dwelling type that is not a single-family home. Whether you wish to buy, sell, renovate or design a loft or condominium in Phoenix, HistoricPhoenixDistricts.com and Downtown Life has the property and solution for you.

Downtown and Central Phoenix is fun, urban living. It is a series of distinct urban and historical phoenix neighborhoods where neighbors know each other and are constantly welcoming new neighbors as the downtown area continues its growth.

Downtown Phoenix and the Central Avenue Corridor has enjoyed tremendous growth since the completion of light rail and ASU opening its Downtown Phoenix Campus.

You can walk for coffee, breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks and entertainment including the First Friday Art Walk, museums, sporting events, shopping, parks and more. It is a place populated by people seeking a way of life that doesn’t require hours of commuting each day. Many people enjoy driving any one of the many Historic Phoenix Districts just to view the architectural designs of the beautiful homes that encompass Phoenix Historic neighborhoods.

While downtown Phoenix grows, you can and experience urban living at its best. No matter what your taste there are homes that will make you happy. Live in an area full of cultural venues and experience the convenience a downtown residence can provide whether in a modern or historic condominium, historic loft, or a townhome. Come be part of downtown life.

A State-by-State Look at Price Predictions

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2016

REALTORS® nationwide expect home prices to inch up 3.2 percent over the next 12 months, according to the latest REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey, based on a monthly survey of more than 50,000 NAR members about their local markets and most recent transactions. Overall, real estate professionals expect the recent strong growth in home prices to moderate as rising prices hamper affordability in many areas.

2016 State-by-State Price Predictions by the National Association of REALTORS

REALTORS® in Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Colorado, and Florida are the most optimistic about price growth in the next year – with a median expected price growth of 4 to 5 percent.

The infographic above, from the REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey, breaks down expectations of REALTORS® on home prices over the next 12 months for each state.

January is a Big Month for Listings!

For Buyers:
January is one of the top months for new listings to hit the market, making it a good time to start looking. Buyers gain a negotiating advantage when there are more listings in competition with each other. Typical inventory trends tell us that November through January are the peak months for buyers to have the maximum choice of properties before competing buyers begin dwindling the supply and their negotiating advantage. The market as a whole is still a seller’s market, meaning that supply is below normal for the level of demand out there. This shortage is mostly for properties below $200,000. Expect more choice in the upper price ranges.

For Sellers:
Get ready for the beginning of the purchasing season! The first week of the year is typically the lowest point for pending sales due to low buyer activity over the Christmas and New Year holidays. The lull doesn’t last for long, however. January is a big time of year for large tourist events in the valley including the Barrett Jackson Car Show, Waste Management Open, Collegiate Football Championship and more. By February, open house traffic will pick up and a notable increase in contracts submitted. In 2015, the number of contracts in escrow nearly doubled between January and June before submitting to the summer slowdown. This year, we’re starting off with 15% more properties in escrow compared to this time last year, a good sign for sellers to kick off the year. There are still a significant number of boomerang buyers recovering their credit after foreclosures and short sales a few years ago, providing a healthy level of optimism for demand in 2016.

Cromford Report For Buyers and Seller

Historic Phoenix Districts Real Estate In Downtown and Central Phoenix

Real Estate in Historic, Downtown and Central Phoenix is Our Specialty.