I've sold three houses in Phoenix over the past 10 years. All took over six months to sell. All had hardly any traffic and no offers. Then I did the St. Joseph trick (kudos to Mom). And within a week, an offer.
But, shows you what a crappy real estate town Phoenix was until the speculator craziness in 2005. Those days are over, never to be seen again. But trust me, wanna make some money, get into the St. Joseph statuette market now!
The couple got caught in the abrupt market swing that has drastically increased the number of houses for sale in metropolitan Phoenix. They've reduced the price twice - it now stands at $449,000 - yet there were no takers. So they resorted to an old home-selling trick that's supposed to bring luck: burying a statue of St. Joseph upside down by the For Sale sign in their yard.
"The four of us, we held hands, and my wife said a prayer to St. Joseph to put us in escrow," Andre Bilyk said. "We were having an open house the next day. You gotta do what you gotta do."
Listings are up and houses are taking more time to sell as buyers regain the upper hand in the Valley's volatile resale market. Six months ago, the Bilyks would have sold their house in a couple of days, if not a few hours. Now, the house is waiting for a buyer and competing with more new listings every day as suddenly picky shoppers browse the market and haggle more on price.
The number of houses for sale in metro Phoenix has nearly tripled in the past year, based on December data from the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service.
February 16, 2006
Now Phoenix sellers are praying to St. Joseph (and it's too late)
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3 comments:
Was in Phoenix for business today, WHAT A DUMP!!!!!! This place sucks. I do not understand what is driving people here. I was shocked at all of the housing developments being built, they are everywhere. The scenery here is worse than Vegas, including that lame a$$ Camelback mountain (everyone says it is so beautiful), its NOT!
It would take 75 virgins to get me to move there, not a St. Joseph statue.
This dump is about to get flushed.
The problem is that though there are more houses in the market, the sellers do not seem to realise there is a problem, the prices listed are roughly 20-25% above the peak time prices. Its still not a buyers market because hardly 1-2% of the houses in the market are marked 4-5% above the peak prices. So the buyer has got only these 1-2% of the houses to choose from. In effect, the buyers still dont have much choice. Only thing is there are no bidding wars now. Wish St. Joseph would help the buyers a bit also !
Scottsdale is pretty nice, though.
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