Housing market: Recovery on the way?

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill, Nov. 10, 1942

No one says that the Arizona housing market has recovered, but it just may be that the free-fall of values and glacial sales have bottomed out, at least according to some real estate agents and the Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business.

ASU officials pointed out that while sales are still sluggish, the rate of the decline seems to be slowing, with repeat home sales declining by 3.6 percent from November to December, but just 1.1 percent from December to January.

There seems to be a new interest in buying that hasn't been apparent over the past months.

"I think it might be starting to recover," said Dawn Workman, an Ahwatukee Foothills resident and East Valley real estate agent. "A lot of homes are now priced right, which is helping."

For R.G. "Rock" Argabright, also an East Valley real estate agent, the market is still tough, but he sees some positives with prices holding steady.

"We may be floating on the bottom, (instead of falling)," Argabright laughed. "The only negative we have is the darn foreclosures."

Numbers change on an hourly basis, but in Ahwatukee Foothills there are about 36 foreclosures out of 850 homes on the market. In nearby Ocotillo there are 66 foreclosures out of 1,422 homes for sale.

Argabright noted there are two to three times as many homes that are in pre-foreclosure and if those homes revert back to lending institutions they could drag down resale values thought the neighborhood.

But Workman has done the classic of turning lemons into lemonade, by offering tours of foreclosed properties to generate sales.

"I've been selling a lot of foreclosures lately."

Workman said that it's not uncommon for a 1,800-square-foot three-bedroom, two-bath home to sell for under $100,000.

But financing may still put the brakes on the recovery, if there even is one.

Argabright said the days of 100 percent financing are gone and that prospective home buyers need around 5 percent down, or $5,000 for every $100,000 of home, and must have good credit before they can expect a home loan.

The bottom line is that the time is right to buy for home buyers with good credit and cash for a down payment.

"People are finally able to afford to move to areas that have been out of their reach or simply able to afford a home of their own for the first time," Workman said.

For more information, visit Argabright at www.rockofphx.com, or Workman at www.DawnWorkman.com.