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What to expect in 2010?

Published On: January 4, 2010

The Views expressed here are the opinion and only the opinion of the Designated Broker Tom Peterlin. Any informaton gathered and provided from resources such as the Arizona MLS is considered to be approximate in nature. It is strongly recommeded that Buyer & Buyer's agent and Seller & Seller's agent to verify any information provided in this blog for themselves.

Jay Butler, ASU real estate Studies Director was recently quoted in the Arizona Republic as indicating that there are too many variables to look at in the current real estate climate in the Valley of the Sun. He indicated that if the Job market improves and stabilizes and foreclosures abate that we could see  some real signs for the first time in a while of a normalizing real estate market.

The only sure thing according to Jay is that foreclosures and high investor activity we saw in 2009 make the housing market in Phoenix non sustainable. So if there is a change coming, it will be no doubt be on the back of the $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit and the $6500 tax credit for people who have lived in their principle residence 5 out of the last 8 years. We will know early in the year if this real estate stimulus has any effect on improving and stabilizing the market because those tax credits must be excercised by no later than April 30, 2010 to have the properties in escrow and close before July 1, 2010.

After four straight losing quarters, the national economy finally grew from July through September last year. Much of that growth, though, came from government-supported spending on homes and cars. There's  still a worry about how the economy will be once government supported programs are no longer tethered to the market later this year.

Nevertheless, as we ended 2009, there was recognizable upward price support in place for all three sectors of the Phoenix are residential real estate market with normal, short sale, & REO properties. Please see the How's The Market link for an update on that report (just copy below and paste it to your browser):

http://www.century21seago.com/HowsTheMarket

Please call me at 480-703-1414 or email me back at tom@c21seago.com  with comments or to request more information.

Best wishes,

Tom Peterlin

Century 21 Seago, Inc