Thanks again to our Get Your PHX February host,  Tertio Wine Bar and the folks from Empty Glass Wine Company, for an incredible presentation. I expected a much lower turn-out because we were asking folks to pay ahead for the four-course meal. Yet we had a very strong showing and we all walked out of there with a new appreciation of what Virginia Senior and her crew are capable of.

For March, I’m very excited to announce that we are going to get an honest to goodness preview of a new downtown venue before they open (its been a while, huh?). When you come to the next Get Your PHX on March 21st, you will not only get a glimpse of the new Last Exit Live before its official opening, but you’ll also help kick off the local stage feature of the McDowell Mountain Music Festival.

Here’s the skinny: The McDowell Mountain Music Festival (MMMF), in a belated recognition that downtown is the place to be these days, will move its line-up of shows to Margaret T. Hance Park, starting March 22nd and ending March 24th. Last Exit Live, as the newest official Local Stage for the event is coordinating with the Get Your PHX Team to bring you a Local Stage Pre-party and the soft opening of Last Exit Live.

Here is what we have lined up for you already:

1) Our friends at Blue Sky Airport Parking are hosting this event. They are a locally-owned, Local First Arizona member company. They are generously helping arrange specials from one of our local food truck friends, to be announced. Their active participation in improving their neighborhood downtown has brought them much acclaim and a number one rating on Yelp.
2) Last Exit Live’s owner Brannon Kleinlein is offering an incredible special on drinks: $2 domestic beers and $3 imports from 5:30 to 7:30, just for Get Your PHX attendees. After 7:30 the drinks will still be only $3 for domestics and $4 for imports.
3) Brannon is booking two local Phoenix bands, to start at 8:30, to help kick off this MMMF Local Stage for a weekend of incredible new music. Please stay tuned, as we will announce this over the course of the next couple weeks.
4) We already have raffle items for you from AccountingPros and Local First Arizona for our monthly FREE raffle. You know how this goes. I expect to find more goodies for the raffle before the big event.

I also really want you to meet Brannon in person. Our goal with the Get Your PHX events is to celebrate the people who make downtown better every day. You will hear more from Brannon. For now, here’s the basics: Last Exit Live used to be in Tempe from 2003 to 2009. Brannon sold it in 2009, it closed under the new owners and he has re-started the venue in downtown. As Brannon reported to the Downtown Devil, he wanted to be part of the growing scene downtown and felt certain that this size venue (prevalent in Tempe) would fill a niche downtown. 

As I think we all do, Brannon believes that we need to be re-building inward rather than sprawling outward. He is putting his money where his mouth is. We want to support that. So, please come by. Also, if you want to get tickets to the McDowell Mountain Music Festival, please order them through the Last Exit Live website. This will help Brannon’s business and ensure he can give us a great bands and experiences downtown.

More on Last Exit Live:
New Times
College Times 
Java Magazine 
More New Times
 
March Get Your PHX:
The Local Stage Kickoff at Last Exit Live, Sponsored by Blue Sky Parking
Thursday, March 21st, 5:30 to close
717 South Central Ave  Map It
Phoenix, AZ 85004

Quick announcement: I earned the HomeSmart Diamond Club award for 2012. In the eyes of HomeSmart, I bought or sold an impressive amount of property for my clients in 2012. I’m particularly proud of this because I started as an agent just about the time the recession started. I did that on purpose. I knew that if I was tough enough to make it through the rough times, I would be that much better an agent for my clients (and myself) when times got better. I know that I made the right decision.

Foreclosed properties are almost down to long-term, “normal” levels. There is no shadow inventory. But you’ve heard me tell you why a hundred times by now. In February, there were fewer than 1,000 recorded residential trustee deeds in Maricopa County for the first time since September 2007.

But if you want to understand the most important driver of cost, you need to look at inventory, which we do regularly here. See the chart, above. See how the average days on market for all homes has dropped from over 160 in early 2011 to about 60 today. This number is lower for cheaper properties and lower for homes in CenPho, in many cases. 

So, what happens when inventory goes down? Price goes up! 

Expect more of that, as home builders are still not building as quickly as they once did. Most importantly, they are not building in the CenPho area. Further, people who might have been thinking of selling are hearing about price increases and they may be holding off, hoping for even higher prices before they sell. We really need those houses on the market to keep prices from rising too quickly. (Price increases are good, but not when they create the conditions for another bubble!)

Further, further, sellers are listing their houses at inflated prices just to see who will bite –people are biting and appraisers are supporting those prices.

Further, further, further, interest rates continue to stay low. So there are a ton buyers for very few houses. What do you do? If you are a buyer, don’t hesitate. Get out there. If you are a seller, I would not wait too long either. I think we have the makings of a mini-bubble. There is an equal chance that you could wait to list your home only to find that mini-bubble burst and prices are lower than they are today.

If you are thinking about listing you home (even for short sale), please give me a call and let’s meet. If you are thinking of buying, let’s grab a cup of coffee and talk about your plans. We can build a strategy that gets you the home that you are looking for.

Call me at 602-456-9388.