One of the top 10 largest cities in the state, Tempe, Arizona, is a large city of more than 175,000 residents in the East Valley area of the greater Phoenix metro area. It is most notable as home to Arizona State University, the state’s largest and oldest college. As a large city, the Tempe real estate market is vast and offers a wide selection, from large, luxurious single-family homes to more modest homes and a selection of condos. The Arizona real estate market is notorious for seeing some of the worst effects after the downturn of the economy in the housing sector, and Tempe has not been sheltered from ill effects. It has seen prices fall and has seen a large number of houses foreclosed upon as mortgage levels reset and rose and many residents found themselves without a job in a recession.

The number of active listings of Tempe homes for sale began to fall last April until the fall, around September, when it hit a bottom of 407 homes and then began to climb back up. April saw the city with its highest collection of inventory over the past 12 months, with 550 homes for sale, up from last April, when there were 512. Sales activity began a gradual rise last March and hit its peak in July, whereupon it began a gradual descent. In January, it hit a trough and began rising again. In March, there were 102 properties sold, up from last March’s 66 but slightly off July’s high of 138, according to statistics made available by John Hall & Associates.

The price of Tempe homes per square foot has remained relatively consistent throughout the past 12 months, though homes for sale have gradually brought down prices throughout the year. The average price per square foot of a home sold in Tempe in March was $104 per square foot, down slightly from one year ago, when it was $112. The price per square foot of homes for sale was $138 in March, down from $165 one year earlier. Foreclosures have seen an unpredictable path throughout the last year, rising and falling intermittently. The number of foreclosure notices in March was 116, the highest figure over the past 12 months, though off last March’s figure by just one. The number of trustee sales in March was 56, up from one year ago, when there were only 24, and also representing that category’s highest figure in the past 12 months.

One of the anchor cities of Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale, California, is a mostly suburban community in the San Francisco Bay area in Santa Clara County. It is a large city, home to a population of more than 130,000, and is home to the headquarters of many high-tech firms. The area has a high median annual income level of more than $87,000 in 2007, and home prices here are accordingly higher than in many areas of the country. The Sunnyvale real estate sector, of course, suffered greatly at the beginning of the economic downturn, when many residents lost their jobs and saw their asset values fall.

In the first quarter of the year, which includes the months of January, February and March, the city saw 190 new listings of Sunnyvale homes for sale and a total inventory at the end of the quarter of 149 homes for sale. These figures were both down from the first quarter of 2009, when the figures were 214 and 182, respectively. There were 96 single-familiy homes sold in Sunnyvale in the first quarter, up from 85 in 2009, and homes spent an average of just 43 days on the market this year in the first quarter before selling versus 77 days last year. Prices, however, are mixed with an increased average but a fall in the median. The average sales price in the first quarter was around $726,00, up from $625,000, but the median price stood at just $755,000, down from $1.2 million in 2009.

The market for Sunnyvale condos and townhomes showed similar trends. There were 103 new condos listed during the first quarter and the quarter ended with an inventory of 84 condos still on the market, down 16% from an inventory of 100 at the end of the first quarter in 2009. There were 40 condos sold in the quarter, an improvement from 34 a year ago, and homes spent an average of just 50 days on the market before selling in the first quarter of this year versus 87 days last year. Prices haven’t changed too much: The average sales price was $468,000, down from around $495,000 last year, and the median stood at $465,000, a slight improvement from last year’s $460,000.

1. A mid-sized city in southern Orange County in the famed Southern California area, Alison Viejo is home to a population of more than 40,000 and is a relatively new city, having been incorporated only in 2001. The city has a relatively wealthy makeup, with residents having a median household annual income in 2007 of more than $92,000. Since residents here tend to be wealthier than average, Alison Viejo real estate also tends to have higher prices and is out of reach for many homebuyers. The city has seen its real estate prices fall over the past couple of years though, and many who thought they had no chance of snatching up a deal in Alison Viejo have been able to buy a short sale or foreclosed home at a great price.According to the Orange County Register annual zip code chart, at the end of 2009, the median price for homes in Alison Viejo was $393,000, a decline in price of nearly 10% year-over-year. Despite the falling prices, or, rather, because of them, sales activity in the city rose annually to 887 homes sold in 2009, an increase of 6.5%. More recently, signs seem a bit more positive. In March 2010, there were 77 Alison Viejo homes for sale that sold, an increase of 40%, and the median price was $371,000, down from 2009’s median but up by 5.25% from the median price in March 2009.

   More recently, the price has fallen even further, though sales activity is still up year-over-year. According to the Orange County Register Real Estate Blog, for a three-week period ending April 21, the median price of homes sold in Alison Viejo was $383,000, a 4.3% decline over the same three-week period a year earlier. However, there were 69 homes sold during that period, an improvement of 19% since the same period in 2009.

The Orange County real estate market has started to rally
during the first quarter after the economic recession of last year. According
to a March 16, 2010 article in the Orange County Business Journal, “Orange County’s median home price dropped $3,000 in February from January despite seeing an increase in sales. The median price for an OC home was $417,000 in February, compared to $420,000 in January, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick, a unit of Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates.” The piece, composed by Julie Leupold, continued to state that “Sales of less expensive homes dominated sales, bringing down the median price. The median here still is up 11.2% from a year earlier, when home prices weighted in at $375,000. Sales were also up, rising 5.7% from February 2009 with 1,986 homes sold last month. There were 173 more homes sold in February than January.”

The good news for Orange County homes for sale was also great for Southern California homes, according to a March 17, 2010 article in the Los Angeles Times. This piece found that “Southland home prices jumped 10% in February compared with the same month last year as foreclosure sales dropped significantly. San Diego and Orange counties made particularly strong gains. The increase in prices indicates that foreclosure sales are not dominating the market as much as they were a year ago.” The article, composed by Alejandro Lazo, continued to say that “And it could signal that more traditional buyers – those with equity in their homes looking to trade up – are getting back in to the game. But the number of homes sold throughout the region was nearly flat, up only o.8%. That was the lowest year-over-year increase since home sales began to rise in July 2008, according to San Diego firm MDA DataQuick.”

The same general trend for Orange County real estate for sale was noted by a March 16, 2010 article in Business Week, which found that “Southern California house and condominium prices jumped 10 percent in February from a year earlier as homebuyers took advantage of tax incentives. The median price climbed to $275,000 from $250,000 a year earlier, MDA DataQuick said today in a statement.”

By definition, a mortgage is the transfer of interest in a property to a lender as security for debt. Mortgages are often associated with real estate, and not other property such as boats or cars. Usually a homeowner is takes out a mortgage from the bank so that the bank will loan the homeowner the money to buy the house. When a person takes out a mortgage from the bank, they are not seen as being in debt to the bank, but rather the bank is seen as loaning the homeowner money, with the mortgage as security. If the homeowner is not able to pay off the loan, then the bank will have the right to foreclose on the mortgage and take the property that the bank loaned the money for.

Often, in order to take out a mortgage the borrower must have a certain amount of their own money to pay for the house. Banks will never loan money to cover the entire cost of the property. When a mortgage is taken out, borrowers often make small, monthly payments to the bank until the entire loan is payed off. Banks also charge interest rates on the loans, and when taking out a mortgage it is important to know what the interest rate is, and whether it is a fixed interest rates. Often, banks will have a fixed interest rate for the first three years or so, and then the interest rate may change (often increase). Mortgages often take at least 30 years to pay off, but that is often determined by what kind of mortgage you get.

The demand for movers is up and the gas prices are not helping things. We have heard that many moving companies are giving more moving quotes.

Even the Feds big rate cuts are not working. Maybe things got so out of hand with lenders pushing bad loans and borrowers lying on the loan applications that things just need to run its course.