I guess rolodex-of-realtors Catherine Reagor got fired..
Here's another realistic and HP-sounding article from Gren Credo at the Republic. Still full of realtor quotes, but at least ones telling the truth on how it really is out there, vs. Catherine's "everything will be fine, soft landing" buddies. Read the article comments (or add yours) too - very enlightening of the mood in Phoenix.
The 50 percent rise in home prices last year had people buying and selling houses like dot-com stocks, thinking strictly about profits. They stopped looking at their houses as homes and started seeing them as a way to build a retirement nest egg, pay college tuition, underwrite a fancy vacation.
Investors accounted for as many as 35 percent of the home sales in the Valley last year, and many of them were speculators looking for a quick increase in value and a fast sale. They had the mindset that a house was a tradable commodity, a profit machine.
The fast-money speculators who helped drive those price increases have taken their money and run. That leaves the pool of Valley buyers dominated by rank-and-file consumers and long-term investors who will hold the property for its rental income. It also means that the wild bidding that drove home values higher has disappeared.
Phoenix's housing market had the frenzied feel of the dot-com craze. It made home investing appear easy when it was not.
July 17, 2006
Arizona Republic compares Phoenix housing market to dot-com craze
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26 comments:
and bob toll is bernie ebbers
I think one thing that separates Phoenix from Las Vegas, Naples, etc is that it's harder to peg the "it's different here" line on it. Phoenix is just one big plain urban sprawl with no uniqueness to it - and they know it.
Phoenix was the last stop on the flipper gravy train after investors sucked the life out of Vegas and others.
Pets.com is a good one, but I like Webvan because in my days as a silicon valley engineer at the turn of the century, several of my coworkers took a ride on the Webvan express. Unfortunately Webvan took them for a ride to "rock bottom."
Phoenix is the last refuge of losers who can't make it anywhere else.
Where blandness and mediocrity rule.
Like someone posted before, in Phoenix there is no there, there.
A bunch of sorry transplants and mostly Midwestern refugees living on the edge and trying to keep going off the cliff.
This was recently posted in the North Scottsdale Times...this guy figured out that Phoenix metro is nothing but a big hype and by the housing numbers, the word is getting out.
Since he's asking for advice, can anybody post some ?
" I moved here from Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't been to Scottsdale. I came here pretty blindly, with the exception of the Internet, which kind of made this place look like Utopia online. But I'm curious. Where are the mom-and-pop shops and the dive bars and the artsy urban laid back thirty-somethings that aren't ruled by money and status and high-end cars? I'm curious.
Where's the culture? I'm thinking I made a serious mistake. So far, I've gotten a parking ticket and a lesson on tent city and dirty politics. Surely this town has more to offer, but it's looking like one giant corporate strip mall. Its kind of disappointing, so if anyone has any advice"
Ok i was raised in Naples and also lived in Vegas for 6 years (2000-2006) so I can comment on both. Naples has fantastic beaches and the west coast sunsets. It's overpriced as all hell yes but it's a bit misleading because that's where all the richest old people go to retire or have a winter residence. You have that much money going to one place it is sure to raise prices.
Now vegas is a man eating shit hole. There are some businesses and jobs there though because many companies relocated there from cali because of prices in the past. Unfortunately construction has become a huge part of the valley and a slowdown in consumer spending will hurt vegas as well. Interest rates will crimp gambling on debt as well. Appraising ant farms for 350k out there. Its not going to be pretty. Land of the strip malls too.
"I guess rolodex-of-realtors Catherine Reagor got fired..."
This article was written by Catherine Reagor and printed yesterday:
http://tinyurl.com/pe5ru
"I have $1million in investments, I drive a Toyota Corolla, I live in a cheap apartment ($940/m)"
You are a radical nonconformist and need to be brought to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee for undermining the tenets of American capitalism and spreading the seed of socialism to the masses.
Instead of $1 million invested, you need a million in debt to live life to the fullest!
Anonymous said...
"I have $1million in investments, I drive a Toyota Corolla, I live in a cheap apartment ($940/m)....
"Anonymous said
You are a radical nonconformist and need to be brought to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee for undermining the tenets of American capitalism and spreading the seed of socialism to the masses.
Instead of $1 million invested, you need a million in debt to live life to the fullest"
And for God's sakes get rid of that toyota and buy a big, gas guzzling Chrysler ya commie pinko!
Show off, it's the AMERICAN WAY!
Paintblot is a anti-USA loser. Definately NOT my idol.
Paintblot,
good for you..you're on your way.
As for me, if anyone is remotely interested:
Drive a 1988 Ford with 175k on the odometer ($240 per annum auto insurance), have 2 mil in T-notes and stocks, and small investment property in Manhattan,NYC while RENTING in the "glitzy" 85255 zip of Snottsdale,AZ.
Also got a generous very early retirement package/pension with free medical from a major corp and haven't worked a single day for the past 5 years.
For fun, I observe the stressed-out, over-extended Scootsdale wannabees
who think they are players and better than everybody else driving around in bank-owned SUVs and living in bank-owned fake houses.
The literary word is Schadenfreude (German): "Pleasure derived from the misfortune of others".
Cash is KING!
If nice cars don't interest you then why get onePeople have different outlooks on money. Some people think that money (and credit) is best spent to maximize short-term pleasure. These people buy the fancy cars, houses and vacations. These people say that the highest purpose of money is to be spent and that to die with money is to have wasted an opportunity to have purchased pleasure.
Other people believe that the highest purpose of money is to provide a security net so that if something terrible were to happen, they will be ready for it. To these people keeping money in the bank is an insurance policy that they hope they will never need to use.
I am firmly in the second category. To people in the first category I seem cheap and stupid for missing the opportunity to enjoy the spending of money. To me, the people in the first category seem like children. They spend money on nonsense and don’t think twice about saving for a house, college for their kids, and their own retirement. They will not be prepared for the expected expenses and they sure as hell will not be prepared for the unexpected expenses.
?
Paintblot...I am in a very similar situation as you. Lots of investments (around $1M), no debt, currently rent a nice $1000/month apartment equivalent to a $300k condo, (although have owned my home for most my life, just not now for obvious reasons), and drive a 6 yr old VW Jetta.)
I built up the nest egg over a 30 year period by living below my means, always saving some of my income, and reading and learning as much as I could about investing.
My depression era parents taught me that money is freedom. It's that simple.
Debt is slavery.
People get to choose which they want by the decisions they make.
Antiblot says: "Paintblot is a anti-USA loser."
Antiblot is so jealous of Paintblot he can't stand it. Wishes he WERE Painblot! lol
So, in the typical 21st Century Republican style mode of 'slime what you aren't able to be/what you want but can't have', he descends to name calling. (Carl Rove has taught these people well...if they disagree, call them Unpatriotic!)
who's the loser? we know...
can you pinheads focus on the topic instead of congratulating and stroking your low self-esteem?
this is big news for the AZ Republic to finally not be in bed with real estate complex.
also, if you brag about your wealth or slam another city, then you prove my theory that you have a 2 inch penis.
'also, if you brag about your wealth or slam another city, then you prove my theory that you have a 2 inch penis."
I'm a multimillionaire,agree that the cities mentioned are major dumps and I have a vagina. Your theory is as bankrupt as your limpness.
I completely agree with the guy from Atl.
I moved to Tempe/Scottsdale in 1992 and I feel my soul has been sucked of its life for the past 14 years.
My advise to him is if he doesn't have a great job now or a few years from now, get the F out of here! If you don't, you might end up brain dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"can you pinheads focus on the topic instead of congratulating and stroking your low self-esteem?
You come across as an envious self-stroker who has a low net-worth.
I've always felt it's better to be rich and have a crappy car than poor and have an awesome car (Navigator with chrome rims).
thinker --
very good thought. i would add to it, to say that for me having a little money stashed away is the key to a little freedom -- I can work for myself, with modest needs, retaining a certain degree of freedom and independence.
geek?si!,
I'm 50 years old and in the same category with a bunch of the other posters, except I share a house for $500/mo, drive a Honda Civic, shop at WalMart. With that lifestyle, whom am I trying to impress at 50? Read the "The Millionaire Next Door" sometime. It is rare to hear these people speak about themselves.
All you others - glad to know you're out there.
I lived in Phoenix sinc the early 80s. There are definitely worse places to live and better. My wife loves the desert and dry climates. I love hot and humid. Phoenix was a great compromise since I can live with the desert as well as the tropics. We didn't move away from Phoenix because it was a hell hole but because it is turning into a hell hole by suburban sprawl. We miss all the cotton fields, the open spaces, the beautiful mountains, sunsets, and mild winter climate. We don't miss the Megasprawl and the air pollution. so we left for Austin, a city that is just the right size and will remain small enough that when we die it will still be a reasonable size city (in 25-30 years).
Bashing cities is meaningless. If you live some where great, then tell us why! It is almost like saying my wife is ugly but your wife is uglier! Be glad everyone has different tastes or imagine how aweful our cities would become.
I may not want to live in Buffalo, Rochester, Boston, D.C., Charleston, Kansas City, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, S.F., but that doesn't mean they are hell holes. Apparently there is some reason why so many people live there or they wouldn't exist.
For most Americans, I think what they want most is a good secure job, affordable housing, low crime, low taxes, and for many they are willing to live almost any where to get those things and will worry about "paradise" when they retire.
I may want to live in Camden, Maine but if I have a family and need a good paying job, Camdem isn't paradise. If I have money and maybe am retired I can live any where. Most of us need a job and a place to live. I love Austin but when I decide to return to the work force after my year sabbatical if I can't find the right job here I'd move, don't care if it is Phoenix or Dubai or San Jose. If I move some where that I think house cost too much then I'll rent. A good job comes first and everything else can follow.
Maybe that is why a lot of people in Phoenix work in California and fly back and forth so they can have both the good job and an affordable house for their familes.
I moved to Phoenix from S. California in May. California is a beautiful place all year long... they say Phoenix is nice in the winter.. it sure is ugly in the summer. And the houses are designed poorly for this kind of heat. As a matter of fact the city is designed poorly also, black top and cement get real hot here.
Stupid water pools with fountains all over, smell like clorine, The tap water in Phoenix is foul. This place needs more open areas and less crowding, like a big heat resovoiur the way it is.
Tucson seems much nicer with mountains and less sprawl. More clouds and higher elevation. cleaner air. cactus even look better there. Maybe smog in Phoenix is killing cactus?
Nice idea with this site its better than most of the rubbish I come across.
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