Jim,

If you're having problems with Trula stats or any others, it's because they don't reflect anything but ARLMS IDX stats. Homes may have been foreclosed on without using a Realtor to list them. Meaning, they could have been purchased at the county courthouse or privately.

Fountain hills home pricing varies across the board. I remember showing Firerock property to a client 2 years ago. He saw a home he was interested in but decided to purchase another. during a recent property tour of those homes I noticed they increased the price 400k. The home is still on the market though, but pricing is coming up because affluent cash buyers are purchasing homes there. Not your typical retired couple looking for that Fountain Hills condo or golf course home. But an example of what can effect a community outside of Foreclosures.

The primary thing Fountain Hills has is desirability because of the small town feel and insulation from the Scottsdale busyness. Nice town & people, great golf, close to freeway access and the shopping of Scottsdale. Honestly, if I didn't have horses I would move fro Rio Verde to Fountain Hills. You and I might be neighbors!

On the positive side for you, I believe Fountain Hills will recover here pretty quickly and get back to what it was primarily, a retirement community/city.

Those folks that are hanging on to they properties waiting for the market to catch up are likely comfortable enough financially.

I'll send you an e mail shortly to get you some information on Sunridge Canyon homes for sale in your area
so you'll know what is or isn't selling and get an idea in general about your homes value.

Thanks for your post here Jim, it's nice to see one (finally) from Fountain Hills.

Sincerely,


Stew Keene
Ph (480) 220-7491
Fax (866) 711 8573
StewKeene@yahoo.com
Keller Williams - Scottsdale, AZ
2008-2009 Master of Real Estate award recipient
ABR, GRI, ePro, CNE, MRE, AHWD

Jim,

Your observations really illustrate the reality that real estate markets are local. The media portrays the entire valley as being in a housing crisis when the reality is there are distressed markets in the valley. Places like Fountain Hills, Paradise Valley & Scottsdale have not seen the level of distress and decline which other parts of the valley have seen. This is not a surprise since these were not markets where the vast majority of 2004/2005 speculatory purchases were made.

You are correct about the financing issues. We have another round of ARM adjustments coming next summer, many of those JUMBO loans - so unless something is done to stem the tide of foreclosures we will continue to see distressed property skewing the values lower. Once we get through this glut of distressed inventory, we will see stabilization of prices. The number of sales is going up and seems to have stabilized to a certain degree nationally based on the stats for recent months.

Tylee