A few weeks ago a writer/reporter contacted me with some questions regarding the Tucson real estate market and I had no problem shooting back a lengthy email describing what I currently see happening. I like discussing the trends and developments I see in real estate as it forces me to keep abreast of market conditions and makes me that much more informed for my clients.
The article was just published yesterday by NuWire Investor, an investment website that has a plethora of articles and resources for investing opportunities. Note: I was not reimbursed in any way for my contribution.
Here is the article: Speculators Scatter, but Investors Welcome in Optimistic Tucson
I’m cited along with Dave Smith, another local Realtor who also runs an excellent Tucson real estate blog. Check out his site here.
In my opinion the re-emergence of investors in the Tucson market is a sign that Tucson market has either bottomed out or is close to it. With lending guidelines as tight as they are now and interest rates not ridiculously attractive (although in the past few weeks they have dropped significantly) an investor must have good reason to pounce on property, usually dictated by price. Let’s hope this trend continues and Tucson can bust out of the recent real estate funk we’ve been experiencing.
Michael Krotchie
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The article is completely spot on! I appreciate it! thanks for such a nice post.
Realtors could help the situation by actually putting some effort into the listings. We use the internet to search for homes and the photos are just terrible. Come on guys!! This must be laziness left over from the boom years????
Julie,
Very good point regarding the lack of effort on the parts of some Realtors. To be honest a fair number of licensees have dropped out since the boom years a few years ago. The Tucson Association of Realtors’ 2009 fees were just due so in a month or two I’ll let you know how many agents did not renew for this year.
That’s great. I hope it picks up every where.
If the fed keeps putting money into new mortgage paper with Fannies and Freddie, the money will eventually hit the market. So far it is only hitting in the conforming mortgages. I wrote about 10 weeks ago for the fed to borrow on long term treasury’s and put the money directly into new mortgages at low rates to get the market going. I also said they should provide investor financing to get the foreclosed homes bought and rented. Investor will bring a lot of capital to the market. All buyers must qualify under normal standards.
My investigation also finds the heavily hit markets are reacting to the lower prices and lower rates and volume is picking up nicely.
The banks can not get the money directly, they won’t lend or at least not at the rate and quantity we need. When a purchaser gets a mortgage, buys a property, the old mortgage gets paid off to the bank. The bank receives the money and the mortgage is retired. If the bank’s reserves we short to retire the mortgage that is another issue for their solvency.
Richard,
Great response. I think this year the market will finally receive the trickle down benefits of last year’s efforts to stem the housing crisis.
Here in Tucson I would say the market has definitely reacted to the lowered prices and rates, these next few months will be very telling.