Bidding
wars snarl the housing marketBy
Cathryn Creno The
Arizona Republic 09.12.09
It
should be the best time to purchase a home in decades.
Prices
are at record lows. Many, if not most, of the houses on the
market in areas such as Ahwatukee Foothills are owned by banks
- not emotional and capricious homeowners.
Instead,
even seasoned real-estate agents say it's the most difficult
market they have worked in decades.
And
buyers say they are frustrated with the condition of houses
they find on the market - plus, they are getting caught up in
unpleasant bidding wars with cash-rich real-estate investors.
"I
have six buyers who want homes in Ahwatukee, but we can't find
a thing," said Pam Eagan, a longtime Ahwatukee
real-estate saleswoman.
"There
also is a huge shortage of owner-owned, well-maintained
homes," she said.
Eagan
said the selection of attractive, move-in-ready homes is low
because owners who are not having financial problems intend to
hang on to their properties until prices rise again.
So
instead of walking through their dream houses, buyers are
looking at repos gutted by evicted former owners.
"You
would not believe the condition some of these places are
in," said Nancy Nighswonger, an Ahwatukee resident who is
helping her mother, Diane Moss, search for a comfortable home
for her retirement years.
Buyers
who want houses to live in must also compete with real-estate
investors who have deep enough pockets to pay cash for
discounted properties. Banks are creating bidding wars on such
properties by calling potential buyers and asking them to up
their offers, real-estate professionals say.
While
that might sound similar to bidding wars for Valley houses at
the peak of the real-estate market, experts say there is a
difference: In 2005 and 2006, home prices were set at market
value and buyers could offer higher amounts, depending on the
competition.
"Now
sellers are pricing their homes 25 to 30 percent below the
market because they want to take eight or 10 offers to the
bank (that foreclosed on the property)," said Pete Meier,
who has sold real estate in Ahwatukee for 30 years.
Mike
Mendoza, another longtime Ahwatukee real-estate salesman, said
the upside to the situation is that "the market is
starting to move again."
Also,
he said, buyers with the patience and fortitude to endure the
bidding wars can wind up with great deals.
In
some cases, houses in neighborhoods where houses/homes
recently sold for $600,000 are now at "FHA levels" -
the $300,000 range, he said.
Mendoza said he recently represented a house in
Chandler
that was offered as a "short sale" - the owners owed
more on the house than what it was worth.
"I
had nine offers on it," he said. "It was a very nice
house. A million-dollar property originally."
The
house sold for $449,000, he said.
Eagan
was so thrilled by a similar success story that she posted a
message about it on Twitter.com
the day the deal was signed.
The
family she was representing - Honeywell engineer Rudy Dudebout,
his wife, Tina Hynes, and their three sons, Eric, 6, Adam, 4,
and Alex, 2 - had just paid $556,000 for a home that appraised
for $1.2 million at the peak of the housing boom, she said.
The
1982 five-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot custom home backs to the
South Mountain Preserve and has a pool, basketball court and a
balcony overlooking a circular driveway.
"We
had had our eyes on this neighborhood for a long time,"
Dudebout said. "It does not have the uniformity of looks
that you find in other parts of Ahwatukee."
It
helps not to be in a rush in the current housing market.
Dudebout
said he and his family were prepared to stay in their old home
until they found the right new house at the right price.
For more
information about Lillian Wong & Associates and our services, please visit
my website at LillianWong.net or email me at
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