$8,000 Tax Credit for First Time Homebuyers

Find Your Perfect Home

Now is probably one of the best times in history to find your perfect home!!!  The City of Phoenix is offering help to buyers that wish to purchase a foreclosed home and as a first time buyer the $8000.00 tax credit is extreemly valuable.  Home ownership is a shared dream and NOW is the time to enter the market and buy for the same or less than what you are paying for rent.  ASK Chris Baker how you can find your perfect home today!!!  Call 480-381-3299 or email chrisbaker.coldwellbanker@gmail.com.

Visit the Coldwell Banker Site to learn more about the $8,000 Tax Credit for First Time Homebuyers.

New Coldwell Banker Ad

Housing Market Facts / Equity and Wealth Building

http://housingmarketfacts.com

I came across this site published by the National Association of Realtors® yesterday and thought is was interesting. It has some bullet points about the advantage of owning a home. If you’re a long term planner when it comes to financial matters this will probably make a lot of sense to you. If you’re in the market to buy for the first time this shows how people build wealth through real estate.

I thought it was worth sharing so I wanted to post it. You can go to http://www.housingmarketfacts.com to see it in it’s entirety.

Along these same lines if you are interested in building wealth with real estate now is a BIG opportunity market! What if you could own an additional home for a few hundred bucks a month? Can you see how in the long term this will be of benefit to you and your family? Imagine owning a couple investment properties for 10 to 15 years. According to the statistics from the NAR on average a home doubles in value every 10 years. Can you imagine the possibilities? Ok it’s time to expand our current home or trade up. You could sell your current home as well as one of your investment properties to trade up to your dream home! Or maybe it’s time to pay for college. Sell one of those investment properties and supplement or pay in full 4 years of college. What else can you think of?  Here is a link to a potential investment property http://tinyurl.com/yo288x.

Questions / comments leave them by clicking on the comments tab!!

Scottsdale Real Estate Sales December thru January 22nd, 2008

I got an email today from my Title / Escrow company with a graph showing the most recent sales stats in Scottsdale, AZ and thought it was worth sharing. It’s a little hard to read so I’ll translate (the graph image sent with the email was a little pixelated). Basically what this says is Scottsdale’s residential re-sales are at an absorption rate of 7%.  So 7% of the homes on the market in Scottsdale are being sold.

I was just listening to NPR and they were telling the most recent stats from the National Association of Realtors®. Residential re-sales of both single family homes and condos were down in ’07 about 12% from ’06 but here’s some thing interesting; “For all of 2007 there were 5,652,000 existing-home sales, the fifth highest year on record; however, the total was 12.8 percent below the 6,478,000 transactions recorded in 2006.” [Link to original article on Realtor.org]

A little more about the graph: Sales of Single Family homes in Scottsdale, AZ and Fountain Hills, AZ is up to a 7% absorption rate this up from 6% from the last couple months of ’07. What do we owe the rise in sales to? Is it the low interest rates now around 5.6% for a 30 year conforming!!! Is it investors from countries with a stronger “dollar”? Is it that fact that the holidays are over and now we can get back to the day to day of buying real estate? Or is it a combination of all these things combined with the fact that in ’07 home values fell for the first time in history. The average cost for a single family home fell to about $217,000 for 2007 according to NAR.

What does all this information translate into for you?
That depends. Do you need to refinance? If the answer is yes call your lender and do your homework today!!! You will save BIG $$ in the long run. If you need a great loan advisor call Kristi Collins at Coldwell Banker Home Loans 480-951-1010.

Trading up in a down market.
Are you in the market to buy or sell? If you are selling it’s still a great time to sell. If you bought before the boom now is a great time to trade up. You purchased before prices went sky high so you have a good amount of equity in your home and you can still sell for a good price and get into a larger home to better suite your needs today. Here’s a little example of how trading up in a down market can work to your advantage. Let’s say you purchased your home in 2001 for 150,000. It appreciated in value and in 2006 you could sell for 250,000. In today’s market let’s say you could sell it for 13% less or $217,500. Using that same equation let’s look at a home that was valued at $450,000 in 2006. By today’s standards if we apply the same formula you will in theory be able to purchase that home for $391,500 or $58,500 less than in ’06. Then as home values appreciate as they do historically you will continue to increase your net worth as equity in your property increases. Here is a link to a great article in the New York times illustrating the same point.

This is by all means an OPPORTUNITY MARKET. If you’ve been watching and waiting the next 3 to 6 months is it!!! Selection is high, sales are still down and prices have and continue to fall. Sellers will negotiate with you to purchase their property. They want it SOLD!!! I continue to see homes for $100,000 and up that would make great rental properties or great possibilities for first time buyers. For up to the minute information on homes like these in your prefered area please call my direct line 480-381-3299 or email me chrisbakersopenhouse@gmail.com.

Fresh NEW Keys (House Keys!)

Congratulations Sharon!!! For those of you who know I’ve been working in Real Estate for the past year I wanted to share this. For those that have yet to learn this interesting fact about my life – here you go.

This is a photo of Sharon with her NEW keys to her home! If you’ve talked to me lately I’ve probably mentioned Sharon and how excited I am that she found her “Dream Home”. I’m calling it her dream home for a couple reasons. I think we all have our dream homes in mind. I’m not talking about a 25 room mansion – I’m talking about the home that makes us feel warm, cozy and we can share parties and big dinners with family and friends. I call this Sharon’s dream home because she told me after she walked around in it she started dreaming about it. She said, “when you start to see things in your dreams, there’s a reason. It’s right.”

Sharon and I met in the beginning of the summer and have spent a lot of time together looking at homes in Scottsdale, Az as well as talking about her grandson, Brandon, her Daughter, her life, my life… pretty much everything. When I first met Sharon I was doing my first Open House as a Coldwell Banker Agent and I was full of energy and enthusiasm. I was determined to succeed in my new venture regardless of what “people” were saying about the market. I learned something in business a long time ago and it rings true today more than ever. If you have something of value and quality to offer there are clients that will use you for that reason. Value, Quality and of course Outstanding Customer Service. This is the simple principle I’ve always adhered to in my professional life.

As we moved along with the adventure we watched the market and several properties until one day we spotted the ONE! I had a blast getting to know you Sharon and if you are lucky enough to know Sharon you know she is a determined woman! A free spirit and artist, Sharon sees the depth of life that makes all beautiful. I think I too share this perspective which is probably why I love doing what I do. Meeting new people, establishing relationships and helping people move toward their goals and dreams.

Thanks again Sharon! I’m looking forward to the House Warming Party!!!