Sales of luxury homes in
“It’s out-of-state buyers, it’s in-state buyers — but what’s selling are the deals,” said Rusty Davis, a luxury-home specialist with Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty.
As an example,
“There were more than 15 bona fide offers,”
The winning bid was for more than $2 million. The buyers closed on the deal within two weeks, bringing all cash to the table.
Another spec house northeast of Camelback Mountain, which Davis describes as one of the prettiest homes he’s ever seen, also sold for less than half of its original list price of nearly $6 million. It was a short sale, meaning a deal was made before the property was sold to the highest bidder at a trustee sale. The cash deal closed for almost $2.8 million,
The amount of inventory of very high-end homes remains staggering. There’s an estimated five- to six-year supply of homes valued at more than $3 million throughout the Valley, and capable buyers are snatching up what they believe are the best long-term deals.
“The majority of them are wealthy people with a lot of cash. We’re especially seeing Canadian buyers,” said Evan Katz, an agent with
With conventional lenders requiring down payments of 20 percent to 30 percent, some creditworthy buyers are having to pass on the best deals — but not everyone.
Beth Jo Zeitzer, president of
A physician and his family who were moving to
In another instance, a physician who moved from
$1 million. In this case, the lender had repossessed the home and deeply discounted it to $554,900. A bidding war ensued, with the doctor offering $565,000 to seal the deal with a conventional loan.
Courtney Thissell-Blake, a Compass mortgage banking officer, said her bank is the only one doing the low-down-payment professional loans in the Valley.
“Bank of America was doing these loans for doctors only, but they cut off the program about four months ago,” she said.
In a normal market where values have stabilized, the Compass professional loan program is designed to be a 100 percent loan — a rare opportunity even the best of market conditions. Compass’ jumbo professional mortgages are available to attorneys, physicians, oral surgeons, dentists, certified public accountants, CEOs and CFOs of publicly traded companies. New graduates in these fields are eligible if they have an offer letter from an employer, Thissell-Blake said, and all borrowers must have high credit scores.
Zeitzer said one of the positive aspects of the luxury-home market is the predominance of buyers who will occupy the property.
“Investors are totally out on the sidelines. When they look at how long it will take to absorb the inventory, it doesn’t make sense,” Zeitzer said. “This market presents a phenomenal opportunity for many buyers.”
Get Connected
Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty: www.russlyon.com
Realty Executives: www.realtyexecutives.com
ROI Properties: www.roipropertiesaz.com
Compass Bank: www.compassbank.com
