It’s already ugly. Punch up the for-sale-only vacancy report the census department releases every quarter and look at the last few.
Posted by on 12/31/1969 at 03:00 PM
Life in the Fast Lane
Friday, November 10, 2006 - 6:12 am
Getting out of Gotham every now and again keeps us sane. We love to fly into SkyHarbor in November, work on our tan and take in the local sights.
Which in Scottsdale of course means garish plastic surgery, porsche carrera convertibles and “For Sale” signs on nearly 30% of the houses we drive by.
But our holiday in the Sonoran Desert has been anything but relaxing. Its not the old folks and their geriatric groupies, driving 45 mph in the left lane of the 101 freeway, who are annoying us. Or the Budweiser swilling Nascar fans in town for this weekend’s race who weave in and out of traffic at 110 mph.
Its the waiters at the local watering holes.
The majority of them are long three to-4 homes as “investments” and they try to rent/sell you property while you order entrees with one hand and fend off the local wildlife with the other. Big-game hunting and playing the TPC are for losers. The real sport in Scottsdale these days is picking up a house...for practically free.
PHOENIX — Until recently, this fast-growing area was a paradise on earth for home builders. Fulton Homes’ developments, for example, were so popular last year that it was able to raise prices on its new homes by $1,000 to $10,000 almost every week.
“People were standing in line for lotteries,” recalled Douglas S. Fulton, president of the company, one of the largest private builders in the Phoenix area. And they were “camping overnight begging to be the next number in the next lot in the next house.”
No more.
Today, it is the company’s sales agents that do most of the waiting. Not only are there few new customers to talk to, but many buyers who put down a deposit are not even bothering to come back for the walk-through.
“All of a sudden, they just don’t show up,” Mr. Fulton said, noting that such cancellations often mean the buyers forfeit as much as 5 percent of the price. The reason? The prospective buyers got cold feet or simply could not sell their old home. (New York Times Article)
Many fine folks in Arizona are living in denial. For the rest of you...we would recommend spending some time here...it might just be what the doctor ordered.
Lets face it...this could get ugly...and as far as the homebuilding stocks go…
Buyer Beware
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