The distance between these two Valley homes is 50 miles, but their differences couldn’t be more profound. One is the priciest home for sale in the
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WASHINGTON - Even in the midst of a housing recession, one segment of the mortgage market has been booming: reverse mortgages, which provide a line of credit or monthly payments to seniors 62 or older, using an existing home as collateral. Reverse mortgages rose more than 9.5 percent on a dollar basis in the second half of 2006, compared with the first six months of the year, while the number of loans was up 19 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association says. The Federal Housing Administration, which insures about 90 percent of reverse mortgages, announced a 105 percent jump in the loans from 2000 to 2006. More…
Investors aren’t the only ones feeling aftershocks from the troubled subprime-lending industry, which rattled Wall Street and the world last week. It may not be known for months how much havoc the subprime market has brought to the Arizona economy, but experts who follow developments say they are not promising: Arizonans with good credit now will face intense scrutiny when applying for loans. Others with minimal credit may not qualify at all for a home loan. Young and first-time homebuyers will have difficulty finding easy credit and will have to put down larger down payments, particularly if they have a credit score under 600. Almost 40 loan offices in the Valley have closed. More…
Chandler is in the midst of an office-building boom. “There’s a great employment base in
James Ianuzzo would like nothing more than to be able to operate his sign business out of a building of his own. At his current location, just east of the Piestewa Freeway at
U.S. Census Bureau figures released today show Maricopa County is leading the nation in overall population increase as well as for increases in the numbers of Hispanics, Anglos, Native Americans and people of more than one race. The latest numbers are in step with the county’s twin trends of tremendous growth and diversification, demographers say. More…
WASHINGTON - Home sales will hit a five-year low this year, as wary lenders cut back on loans for many borrowers, a trade group for real-estate agents said Wednesday. The National Association of Realtors’ revised forecast calls for existing home sales of 6.04 million in 2007, down 6.8 percent from last year. The forecast was 1 percent lower, or 70,000 fewer homes, than July’s prediction of 6.11 million. This year’s sales would be the lowest since 2002, when sales hit 5.63 million. Last year’s sales were 6.48 million. More…
Countrywide Financial Corp. and CIT Group Inc. said they’ll be able to ride out the mortgage industry’s credit crunch as two more rivals, HomeBanc Corp. and Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., curtailed new loans. HomeBanc said it is selling assets to Countrywide after bankers cut off credit and left the Atlanta-based company unable to fund loans. Impac, based in
The Chandler Planning and Zoning Commission has approved a proposal for a 45-acre mixed-use project on the northwestern corner of
The case of Gray Development Co. vs. Desert Ridge is perhaps the most complex case to come up in the master-planned development since construction in the area first started. Gray is the owner of a 41-acre parcel at the northeastern corner of Tatum and
Fireside at Desert Ridge, going up on 270 acres west of Desert Ridge Marketplace, is more like seven neighborhoods. On the northeastern corner are “maintenance-free” homes - apartments and patio homes that will be sold to empty nesters and first-time home buyers. Near Deer Valley Drive in the center is a luxury line of homes - large, with up to five bedrooms. More…
City code enforcers and county mosquito patrols across the Valley say they’re seeing a spate of weeds and green pools in places they never used to: newer neighborhoods with higher-priced homes. Increasing numbers of these properties are being abandoned by cash-strapped owners, leaving messes and headaches for neighbors and municipal officials.
Home buyers have long flocked to metropolitan