Donna Reiner, a local historian and a good friend of Get Your PHX, has written many articles over the years for the Arizona Republic and others about what came before us. We use her services when we list properties of historic significance to help us tell the stories behind the homes.

We are happy that Donna is allowing us to re-publish some of her articles on a monthly basis. If you or your business ever needs a historian, let Donna know at laydeescholar@hotmail.com.

In late fall of 1906, Adam Diller and his large family left their home in Bluffton, OH for Phoenix, AZ taking household items and farm equipment on the train that they would need to start a new life in territorial Arizona. The Dillers, along with other Mennonite families from Ohio and Indiana, were drawn to the Phoenix area because of its fertile farm land.

The Dillers first purchased 40 acres on what was then the outskirts of Phoenix along 16^th Street between the Phoenix Ditch and what is now Roosevelt Street.  A dairy was there initially and the Diller family sold the milk to Phoenix residents. A resourceful family, the Dillers began making textured cement building blocks using water from the canal which were used to build their two-story home near 16^th Street and Fillmore. Unfortunately, the house has long since disappeared from this busy intersection.

Before the sale of the 16^th Street property (these forty acres were later sold in 5 and 10 acre parcels), the Dillers purchased 60 acres of citrus on 7^th Avenue between what is now Butler Drive and Dunlap. This area of north Phoenix was our “citrus belt” due to the vast acreage of citrus groves and small citrus growers nestled between the Arizona and Grand Canals.

Once again, the Dillers built their home with cement blocks that they had made near their former 16^th Street home. The design of this house was different from the 16^th Street home.

Dan Diller purchased property south and adjoining his parent’s land. It was on this property that an unusual sweet orange tree was discovered. What made this orange different from others in the grove was its size, lack of seeds, and extraordinary juiciness.

Careful propagation of buds from the “mother” tree sometime around 1920, led to the creation of what is now known as the Diller Orange. Lewis Diller, the son of Adam, planted and sold many groves of this orange during the 1920s. This Arizona sweet orange was shipped to market and ads in the local papers offered them for sale. The Diller orange tree is still available for purchase at some select nurseries in the valley.

Today the home on the west side of 7^th Avenue is listed on the Phoenix Historic Property Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Those textured cement blocks are a testament to the soundness of the home and the love the Diller family gave to this place.

Many of you who live in Central Phoenix may have watched the multi-year struggle of Harmony Mosier against cancer. Harmony, the young daughter of Paul and Keri Mosier, had rare form of cancer. She passed last Wednesday. You can see a tribute video to her here.

What was remarkable about her story was just how bravely she fought. We all watched as she struggled through round after round, with varying degrees of invasive and painful procedures, as well as radiation and chemotherapy.

Paul and Keri are active friends in our community. Keri makes beautiful jewelry, which she has sold at our Phoestivus Market since its inception. Paul is a well-regarded author and publisher.

Paul and Keri documented their struggle on Facebook and our community followed with rapt attention. Their writings and photos presented a touching and meaningful chronicle of a close and loving family dealing with a foe, which they rallied together to fight. Watching their story, we could see just how much the community was drawn her cause, with t-shirts, fundraisers and tributes.

Theirs is the story of two working parents who, when confronted by a demon who sought to take their daughter from them, put everything on the line. The doctors and hospitals, while bringing to bear all of their knowledge and new treatments, still cost money.

Without opining on the state of our health care system in American, we want to take this opportunity to request that you look at Harmony’s story and take a moment to donate to the GoFundMe campaign, which was set up long ago to help fight. Now that Harmony is gone, the bills remain for a family who has lost so much.

Michelle and I have donated and we will again. With so much grief, and in a moment when they will turn to focus on the beauty of the short time they had with Harmony, we hope that the community will help take the burden of medical bills off their shoulders.

This month’s market update shows a transition in to the spring/summer level of activity. While its still a strong market, fewer listings are coming on.

Here is what our friends at the Cromford Report have to say about what we can expect.

“The supply of active listings without a contract got worse compared to last year, 15.1% down compared to 14.3% lower last month. We normally see supply drop between April and May and expect this trend to continue until September. Buyers can expect fewer homes to choose from, but at least there will also be a fall in the number of buyers looking at them. Buying activity tends to drop as the temperatures rise. Pending listings are still lower than last year but the gap has reduced from 5.9% to 2.1% over the last month. The number of listings under contract is also down compared to last year, but up 4.3% from last month suggesting a strong sales month in May.

Prices continued to rise during April but quite a bit slower than in March. The average price for homes under contract suggests another modest rise by the end of May.

The situation below $500,000 remains largely unchanged, still a tough place to be a buyer and little sign of any relief. The next price range up, between $500,000 and $1,000,000 has started to go a similar way, with falling inventory and price rises beginning to gain momentum. Demand is very strong over $1,000,000 but relatively plentiful inventory has been stopping prices from rising quickly until recently.

Despite a slight dampening effect of demand from the higher interest rates, there is still more than enough demand for homes to overwhelm the inadequate supply in the general market. For the highest price ranges, where excessive supply had been a problem since 2015, demand has increased to the point where the supply is now looking quite normal and prices can make some progress again.

For sellers, the situation continues to look very good while any bargaining power that buyers possessed is gradually drifting away from them.”

We are preparing our clients for the summer months. If you are thinking of selling or buying, please give us a call at 602-456-9388 and we can help you make the right plans.