Flagstaff Home Prices May 2009 vs. May 2008 and prior years

235195 Resource 178435 178982 178982 1245694164997 1245694607850 Controlled What's Happening in The Flagstaff Real Estate Market

Home Prices in May Took The Biggest Year-to-Year Drop Yet -- So how much more do you want to gamble?

As I was studying the MLS hot sheet for Flagstaff home listing changes since last Friday, I noticed quite a few sales. The price per square foot of the sold homes varied widely – from $121 per square foot to over $240 per square foot. Of course, the homes varied widely, too: From stripped and unlivable to a pristine Flagstaff Country Club townhome. There was another luxury property on a one-acre lot in the same region of Flagstaff in the same higher price per square foot range. What’s the lesson in this for buyers who may be hesitating about buying a Flagstaff home? Very little. One cannot tell from such a snapshot of the market what is going on in the Flagstaff real estate market except this: You will not find a home for $50 per square foot – and it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see one for $100. Also, you can tell that Flagstaff homes are selling. Some buyers think the time to buy is now. After all, the <a title="Flagstaff Home Prices May 2009" href="/public/item/234422" target="_blank">prices per square foot are down from a year ago</a>, when they were down from the year before, and folks need a place to live! Will Flagstaff home prices go lower? Perhaps. But signs are that Flagstaff home prices are leveling out. At most we will not see the kind of drop we saw in the last year. <a title="Latest Home Loan Rate Trend" href="/public/item/235159" target="_blank">Meanwhile, interest rates are going up</a>. If your goal is to buy a home, this is a great time to do it and here’s why: A 10% home price drop is immediately nullified by a 1 percentage point increase in prices. <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-collapse: collapse; border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="127" style="border-bottom: #f0f0f0; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-top: 0in"> <h1>Buy Now Or Wait?</h1> </td> <td width="258" style="border-bottom: #f0f0f0; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 193.5pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-top: 0in"> <h2 align="center">Scenario 1:</h2> </td> <td width="253" style="border-bottom: #f0f0f0; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 189.9pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-top: 0in"> <h2 align="center">Scenario 2:</h2> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="127" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-top: 0in"> Here’s Now </td> <td width="258" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 193.5pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-top: 0in"> Home prices decrease by 5% Interest rates increase by 0.5% </td> <td valign="top" width="253" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 189.9pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-top: 0in"> Home prices decrease by 10% Interest rates increase by 1.0% </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="127" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: black 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: black 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in"> Home Price = $400,000 </td> <td width="258" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 193.5pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: black 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in"> Home Price = $380,000 </td> <td valign="top" width="253" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 189.9pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: black 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in"> Home Price = $360,000 </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="127" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: black 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: black 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in"> Interest Rate = 5.5% </td> <td width="258" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 193.5pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: black 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in"> Interest Rate = 6% </td> <td valign="top" width="253" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 189.9pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: black 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in"> Interest Rate = 6.5% </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="127" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: black 1pt solid; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: black 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in"> Payment = $2044 </td> <td width="258" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 193.5pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: black 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in"> Payment = $2050 </td> <td valign="top" width="253" style="border-bottom: black 1pt solid; border-left: #f0f0f0; padding-bottom: 0in; background-color: transparent; padding-left: 5.4pt; width: 189.9pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; border-right: black 1pt solid; padding-top: 0in"> Payment = $2048 </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Note: assumes a 90/10 loan-value. Even at 6.5%, rates will be considered low and favorable to the housing market. I’ve lived through (and bought homes) when interest rates were over 12%. The question is not, do you want a home, or do you want a “deal.” The question is do you know what the deal is? Timing the market is a bad idea whether it’s stocks, bonds, or homes. If the market you want to be in is one that will give you a home in Flagstaff, start here: <a href="http://bestflagstaffhomes.com/">Team Heitland at RE/MAX Peak Properties</a>. Or, give us a call: 928-714-0001. 9 application/xml Flagstaff home Flagstaff house Flagstaff MLS Flagstaff real estate market mortgage rates Remax in Flagstaff timing the market Flagstaff Home Prices May 2009 vs. May 2008 and prior years Overall, Flagstaff home prices are down about 25% from their peak in 2007. http://blog.bestflagstaffhomes.com/public/item/234422 Current Home Loan Rate Trends Get yesterday's post on the mortgage rate trend http://blog.bestflagstaffhomes.com/public/item/234422 false Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; GTB6; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.0.0) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 aheitland 24.121.32.9 false true false false true 178975 false false true false false false true 178435 blog blogsite/BestFlagstaffHomes/web