It is the set of the sails, not the gales, that decide which way we go.
Today’s HOT LIST Link ( click the pretty blue link below to see today’s picks ):
$2,000,000
10481 E QUARTZ ROCK RD, Scottsdale, AZ
“features up close views of famed Pinnacle Peak”
That pretty pile o’stone featured in the opening shot is Troon Mountain, not Pinnacle Peak. Flip to Pic #3 to see the ‘famed’ rock star. Until they pry this keyboard from my cold dead hands I will preach the gospel that Buyers should consider the Lot first, House second. This Troon treasure is a terrific example. Versions of this home’s layout are found throughout Scottsdale, mostly because it works. The colors, cabinet, and countertop ensemble have been together so long they’ve come in and out of style three times. This is a nice house, as houses go, but we can find you fifty cloned versions of this house any day of the week, not counting Arbor Day of course. This lot is less common than a Chumbawamba hit.
Take a good long look at this view. We can’t find you this quantity of beauty products in one basket very often. Pinnacle Peak to the right, Troon Mountain to the left, sandwiching southern valley views that stretch across the carpet of lights to Saturn. A Terrestrial Troon Trifecta!
$1,025,000
10012 N 1ST DR, Phoenix, AZ
“Central Corridor Trifecta! City lights, mountain views and amazing desert vistas!”
Two Trifectas? Score! Hexactimundo!
Wait a minute. Oh no. A flag’s been thrown by the line judge. It appears this second trifecta is being called back for a False Part. By rule; “mountain views” and “amazing desert vistas” are in fact the same thing. That’s a ten yard penalty. Replay the noun.
Clones are people two.
Full Disclosure: My wife and I considered purchasing this home about six years ago, when it was half this price. The backyard’s westerly view encompass the Estrella Mountain range, the White Tanks, Cardinals stadium, and all of the nightly gunfire flashes a Glendale corridor can provide. Also, sunsets that will make you cry and thank Jesus. Out the front door is Squaw Peak, close enough to taste. I struggled with the depth of the backyard, envisioning our dogs becoming Pugs if they ever achieved a running start in such a tight space. My wife thought the idea of walking up stairs to the kitchen was idiotic. So we don’t live here. We did not double our money.
We each clothe our past decisions in pretty cloaks too blurred for regret, but the great part of MY job is how often those ghosts come barreling back out of the screen for a reunion. Grrr. This one hits that nerve. Hand meet forehead!
Speaking of nerve….
YOUR HOUSING MARKET TODAY
As of this writing, October 7, 2021, there are 7,384 Residential Properties ACTIVE in the Arizona Regional MLS (This number fluctuates ever so slightly as properties sell and leave the market, while new properties are freshly listed and enter the market). Let’s call it a 7,400 Residential properties baselinefor now. That number is roughly one third of typical October inventory levels, over the last 10 years.
One third.
Name anything in your life that functions well when nearly 70% of it is missing.
While it’s popular to blame this housing shortage on the avalanche of Californians pouring out of the largest state in the nation, they are one of the smaller contributing factors to this twice in a lifetime Valley housing crisis (see: 2004 for version one). COVID, and the corporate responses to it, is probably the biggest boogeyman in the housing crisis blame game. Drive around our valley on any weekday and the sea of empty parking lots washing up around Corporate campuses is impossible to ignore. Most of the valley’s largest employers sent everyone home for the year. There’s no need to transfer Ted from Phoenix to the Boise Office if Ted’s working from his own kitchen. Job transfers are nil. People are not moving. That’s a problem.
7,400 Residential properties. It’s not enough to satisfy current demand. Prices will rise until this is corrected.
What if I told you that one Company owns 580 of the houses Active For Sale, right now. That’s about 8% of the market. Hardly an influence right? But what if that same Company owned another 1,840 homes, that were being held away from the market? Hidden. Locked in a closet. Not for sale. Adding those missing homes into the equation, that Company now controls 25% of the housing market.
Opendoor owns 2,420 homes as of today, after a wild summer Buying spree which took the majority of those homes out of circulation. Less than 600 of those homes are currently for sale. Did I mention the Phoenix housing market is desperately short of inventory?
Imagine for a second your dog got knocked up by the neighbor’s Shitzu and you found yourself with a bathtub full of puppies, let’s say 10 puppies. You could go down to the Safeway parking lot, place all ten puppies in a cardboard box and attempt to sell them off for $100 each. But anybody looking in your box will count to ten and attempt to strike a better deal. You have an abundance of puppies, which diminishes their individual value. The wiser puppy peddler will place one puppy in the pen, and price it at $200, because it’s the only one left. Today.
Some might call what Opendoor is doing, swallowing 25% of the housing market and hiding homes in a closet, a version of market manipulation. I don’t know who those people are, but surely they exist. It’s unfortunate that licensed Realtors such as myself are banned from speaking out about what could be construed as clear abuses being conducted by a licensed Broker like Opendoor. Shameful really. Someone should say something. I sure wish I could.
He that has no charity deserves no mercy.
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