Pinetop White Mountain Blog

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I will just bet you thought I had fallen in to a fissure or something since it has been so long since I posted here.  Well no, I'm still around, just been busy being busy and hadn't had any creative inspiration in a while. 

What I have been spending a lot of time doing is studying the market.  Right now it is a really mixed bag.  In some respects things are pretty good, but in others not so much.

Let's start with what is good.  Prices are very affordable, we are in many cases back to the pre-boom days of the early 2000's.  Homes prices are finally beginning to stabilize and in some areas actually increase a bit in value.  That hasn't really started here in the White Mountains yet, but it will.  As the foreclosures dry up and we start to see more sales by conventional sellers rather than banks, prices will start to show some gains.  It is already happening in the Phoenix market because their inventory of homes for sale is so low that they are seeing bidding wars again. 

For Buyers with good credit, a good job, and stability in their lives this is a great time to buy.  Even with limited inventory, if you are diligent in your search efforts you will eventually find something that "fits".  You just need to be patient and prepared so when you do find your perfect place you are ready to move on it. 

For Sellers it is also not all bad news. If you have managed to retain some equity in ;your home, it is in good shape, and in a good location, there is probably a buyer out there looking for it.  As I said above, inventory is very low in many locations and with the foreclosures fading you might just find you can get a better price for your home than you could have even six months ago. 

Now to the not so great news!  Lending is still very tight.  The lending underwriting requirements have not loosened up one bit and as a buyer you better be "golden" or that lender is going to find a way to reject your efforts to buy a home.  It is going to involve jumping through lots of hoops, donating your first born (only kidding but it will seem like it), verifying over and over and over the same information to get through the lending morass. 

Eventually this is going to have to change.  Banks make money by making loans and if they keep declining buyers who are qualified because they have one little ding on their credit or haven't been at their job for the past twenty years (who has?) the time is going to come when the bank officials are going to notice, "Hey, we aren't making any money!"  For now though, that hasn't happened.    

For Sellers things are looking up but still troubled.  The most recent sales in the White Mountain Market have been conventional sales and the price per square foot on those homes is a little higher than it has been.  The down side is that many of them have been Short Sales because the sellers have no choice but to sell at a loss.  Despite the slight uptick in values, they are far from what they were in 2007.  Unfortunately that isn't going to change for a very long time.  Hard as it is to accept, what has happened was really a correction not a crash.  Values climbed too high too fast and there wasn't any place for them to go but down. 

Short Sales seem to be the prevailing trend in the next "new market" and I will say the Banks are getting better at processing them.  Instead of six months, they have got that time cut down to three to four.  That still seems like a long time but it is certainly an improvement over years past.

So you see, it really is a mixed bag in the Real Estate World today.  Some good things, some bad, some things getting better, and some things staying the same.  But overall, I am optimistic.  I do think things are getting better.   We may never get back to "normal" , because what is "normal" really?  Is it the accepted or the change?  I don't know, that is something for the philosophers to discuss, but in my world sometimes there is no going back.  Things change and we change with them.  We may not always like them but to keeping moving forward is certainly more sensible than trying to fight a battle that cannot be won. 

I would say have a wonderful week but it is almost over.  Hope to see lots of you in the White Mountains this weekend for Show Low Days.  Bring your family and come on up.  The weather is gorgeous and our merchants need you. 

Thanks for reading.....until next time.

Sandra Paulow, Assoc. Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR®  928-242-0300

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