Jim Gruler's (azhomezone) Blog

We saw that March had an increase from February sales.  Now April has seen a 13% increase from March sales.  There were 4783 existing home sales in April.  This is really good news.  Combine that news with the fact that the number of homes currently in escrow is close to 8000 means May looks to h...

It will be 15 days before you hear the "official" numbers from Arizona Association of Realtors, but you can say you heard it here first.  March existing home sales in the Phoenix Metro area are up, WAY UP!!!  There were 4200 existing home sales in March which is an increase of nearly 34% over Feb...

The article, The next shoe to drop in housing, from CNNMoney.com, reports that the credit crunch has finally hit the traditional mortgage market as investors are now shunning mortgage-backed securities issued by government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been critical...

This article from CNNMoney.com, reports that the economic stimulus plan announced by Congress last Thursday includes provisions that specifically address the mortgage crises. The package proposes lifting the dollar amount of loans that are eligible for purchase by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to $6...

According to this article, housing construction fell to the lowest level in 16 years.  This, according to the article, indicates that the housing slump showed no signs of turning around.  The article goes on to say that the government reported that applications for building permits fell for a six...

October stats came in last week and they are on par with September.  The month started off a little stronger at the beginning of the month, but slowed down toward the end of the month.  This is not all that unusual.  There were probably quite a few people that had some issues with financing in Se...

If you think the value of the dollar dropping is all bad, check out this article recently published in The Star, a newspaper out of Toronto.  Canadians have some new found money to spend and some of them are looking South for some real estate bargains.   Considering this is becoming the best buy...

Considering how bad of a month September was for existing home sales, it is not surprising that sales in October were able to match September.  There were about 3420 existing home sales in October which is on par with September's sales of 3430.  Typically, October is less than September, but ther...