Desert Botanical Gardens

I love our gardens. Love being a member, even if I don’t get there as often as I would like. Last year the Desert Botanical Gardens had the Dale Chihuly: Nature of Glass exhibition. Because of the exhibit, the gardens increased their revenue last year by 45%.

With so many of the museums, parks and other community facilities facing closure due to the economy and lack of funds, I am glad The Desert Botanical Gardens is doing so well.

Connect with them on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter

Summer Resort Fun

With temperatures rising, many of the visitors to our beautiful city have left, not to come back till cooler weather returns. So the resorts are offering great summer play packages.

  • Millennium Resort has offers starting with $100 room, and get $100 in food and beverage, even pool side. For a bit more add in a golf package.
  • Hyatt Regency Scottsdale is offering free meals, kids camp, and with their ‘water playground’ loads of fun for the family
  • Stay at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort and spend the day at the spa or enjoy all of the services they offer.

Call the resort you’re interested in getting away to and find out what specials they are offering.

You don’t have to get out of town to have a vacation – summer fun is waiting in your own back yard.

New Coffee Shop in Town!

A good friend of mine, Steve Belt,  recently opened up a coffee shop here in Scottsdale.  Echo Coffee.  At Echo, they roast their own beans, serve organic goodies for breakfast and healthy lunches too.

I was surprised to find they have different roast, depending on the type of coffee drink you order.  The latte’s for example have a sweeter roast than the drip roast…

scottsdale coffee Echo coffee

and Drip!  They are serious about drip coffee.  Each cup is individually made and taste – YUM, this is what coffee is supposed to taste like.  So be sure to drop in while visiting Scottsdale.  They are located on Thomas and 68th, just south of old town and the Valley Ho.

echo coffee drip line up

Get your Air Conditioning checked

Your AC system needs to get a tune up twice a year. As you prepare to turn on the cool in the spring, and in the fall before you turn on your heat. For the longevity of your unit, regular maintenance is a must.

Also consider getting your ducts cleaned and checked. Cleaned for… well better air quality in your home, and checked for leaks that need repair. That can save more money. You may also qualify for a $250 rebate from APS for duct testing and repair.

Is the New Home market picking up?

new-construction

The Arizona Republic today has an article about Signs of Life in the new construction home market.  Reading through the article the only real “news” is that the New Home Builders are buying up land again.  The article mentioned the amount of $90 million purchased recently.   This lets me know that the builders are seeing and expecting more home sales.

Hopefully they are correct, and the trend of confidence in the housing market continues.

Home prices seem to be stabilizing

After several years of home prices dropping, the stats are starting to look encouraging.  As you can see from the 2009 Average Sales Price per Square Foot on a monthly average and the start of 2010′s numbers.  Home sales prices are showing signs of stabilizing.  This chart takes into the average, single family homes, condos, manufactured homes, and all areas of the Valley.  This average price per square foot is not reflective of each individual neighborhood.

avg-sales-price-per-sqft

Taking a broader look at a bit more data …

The Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service Home Sales Report for the county for the month of April (the most current data available as of today);

The data for single family home sales shows us that the largest number of home sales was in the 100,000 to 160,000 price range with 2,111 sales.  (total sales for single family homes in the month of April was 6,718)

There are strong sales numbers up to 400,000 with a jump in buyers at the 200-250,000 price as well.

financing-type1

Looking at the same data at the bottom of the page check out the  financing type.   Most buyers are either using FHA loan or cash to purchase.

Taking this into consideration, and what I  have been hearing from others in the filed.  We still have lots of investors buying up the inventory. We also have lots of primary home buyers as well.

The investors were expected to be the first to jump into the market.  They have been buying up inventory for quite a while now.   It is I believe the primary home buyers purchasing that is stabilizing our prices.