Have you noticed the increase in homelessness in Phoenix over the last few years?

There are some very clear reasons for it –and it’s not just that the price of housing has gone up.

It is just as much about poor planning and poor funding, which has caught up with us.

Have a look at this video to learn more about why we’ve seen such a drastic increase in recent years, and what you can do about it.

This video was shot as part of an experiment with me and Marshall Shore. We are shooting videos about things you may not know about downtown, as well as public interest issues, like Homelessness.

You can see these videos pop up about every week on Facebook, “Get Your PHX” on Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

So, this follows the previous post about flips, which show the the number of investor flips in the market per month has dropped 30%. This trend is supported by the Cromford Report data, that only tracks investor flips. We are talking about those NOT owned by the big wholesale real estate buyers.

As an aside, these wholesalers make their money on sellers who are often willing to effectively pay more than 6% in commissions. The wholesalers tell sellers they won’t have to pay a realtor, but end up paying more. Don’t get us started!!

See our video on that at our YouTube Page.

What does this mean for you?

SELLERS: Please, please, please be very careful if somebody tells you they can sell your home for less than the price of a realtor.

Also, from now until early June is the high season. Sell now if you are going to sell this year!

BUYERS: There are a lot of terribly-done flips out there. But if you are willing to look, you are in a stronger position to make those flippers drop those prices. We are not talking about 10% discounts here. But if you 

Call us directly for more insights at 602-456-9388.

Our Cromford Report Friends also track flips in the market, which is telling us a lot —specifically, they’ve driven prices up so high now that they can’t get their margins and they are getting out.

Chickity-check this out. See the first of these two slides. (The next comes in the next post, so check back). They show how the number of flips per month has dropped 30%.

What does that mean? The flippers have realized that they have pushed prices too high and buyers are not giving them the margins they want.

What does this mean for you?

SELLERS: Don’t try to do a flip right now unless you bought really, really, really cheaply!

BUYERS: There are a lot of terribly-done flips out there. But if you are willing to look, you are in a stronger position to make those flippers drop those prices. We are not talking about 10% discounts here. But if you 

Call us directly for more insights at 602-456-9388.

House Bill 2701 (state parks; lottery; heritage fund) has made it out of two committees and is ready to go to the floor of the House.

HB 2701 would restore the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund through the Arizona Lottery at $10 million per year as originally approved by Arizona voters in 1990.

Here’s what you should know. This is a “money bill.” That means that it appropriates money. Well, since the leadership of the House and Senate want all appropriations to be passed in the budget bills themselves, rather than in individual bills, they often let bills like this die. However, if the bills pass one chamber with lots of support, it increases the chances that the appropriations represented in the bill will make it in to the budget.

Got it?

The Arizona Preservation Foundation asks you to please continue your support of the Heritage Fund by submitting your position through the Legislature’s Request to Speak system or by contacting your legislator.

Over in the Arizona Senate, can voice your support for, Senate Bill 1241, the sister bill to the house version. It helps if they get support in both chambers.

Background. From the time Arizona voters approved the creation of the Fund to the Great Recession when it was defunded and removed from statute, the Fund served our state well (project list and map) with its dedication to parks, outdoor recreation, open space, non-motorized trails, outdoor and environmental education, and historic preservation. It is our hope that this Legislature restores the Fund after satisfying all other current encumbrances, and to bring the Fund back to effect in a responsible and deliberate manner.

Why the Fund is important. Arizona’s local, regional, and state parks and recreation facilities are economic development generators that encourage the spending of tourist dollars, attract businesses whose workforce choose jobs in locations with quality of life benefits, strengthen community cohesion, and increase property values. Historic preservation initiatives in our rural communities and urban areas promote economic development by creating jobs, revitalizing historic areas, increasing property values, and promoting heritage tourism.

As a big-ol sustainability, gardening and composting nerd, I’m concerned about the decline of bee populations in the United States.

I think we are closing in on a solution to the problem. In the meantime, I wanted to share some thoughts that I learned from my friend and entomologist, Chelsea, who studies bees, specifically.

Before I tell you what I learned from her, I encourage you to have a look at 12 Reasons Not to Be Afraid of Honeybees. While you may not want a bee colony in your shed, there are two things to keep in mind: you have to work hard to annoy them enough that you get stung and there are companies out there that will take those bees without killing them.

So, on to what I learned. First, we could do ourselves a great service by supporting native desert bees. One third of what you eat relies on bees.

It’s a little-known fact that the bees we commonly think of are not native to Arizona. Chelsea calls them “the chicken of the insect world” in that we have cultivated them to help us produce the honey that we want.

However, there are desert bees that could help replace the declining population of bees that we are hearing about. There’s one really great thing about those: while they do have stingers, they are very unlikely to sting sting. But they do pollinate the many plants that we rely on.

Second, there are things that you can do to encourage these bees to create homes, or “hotels” and other things that you can do to give them the food that they need. For instance, you can plant wildflowers in your yard. I’m particularly proud of mine, and they are visited by various types of bees every day.

It is notable that native bee species don’t make hives. They are generally solitary or subsocial – so they make “nests” where they line a hole in wood or twigs with mud (mason bees), leaves (leaf cutter bees), or wax (carpenter bees), then they lay one egg and provision it with a pollen ball. Then they fly away. – not often caring for their babies.

With the “bee hotel”, you are providing them “nesting spots” – not quite hives. But you can set out or hang wood with little holes in which for them to nest.

Lloyd Hardrick, a contributor to Urban Farm U, gives great insight in to keeping urban bees in this podcast. He handles honeybees, but he has some great insight to share.

My flowers are providing pollen for bee hives, and thus supporting their populations.

You are welcome, bees.

So, Chelsea and I are hatching an idea of setting up a native bee population in my back yard. Stay tuned. We may get this together with a little video to explain.

Stay tuned. Bee cool. Bees are our friends…

I’ve been impressed for years with Read Better Be Better (RBBB), a local non-profit education organization that partners older students (“bigs”) with younger students (“littles”) to help improve reading skills for each.

I watched them do their work at a local elementary school last year and I’ve been tracking their progress as they’ve grown.

So, as we celebrate what is working in education, here’s RBBB’s announcement that they are expanding in to even more schools.

Phoenix, Ariz. – Read Better Be Better (RBBB), a Phoenix nonprofit that helps children improve literacy skills and become better learners, has expanded to serve students in thirty-six sites throughout the greater Phoenix metro area, an increase from 26 sites in Fall 2018.

RBBB after school programs inspire and equip at-risk middlegraders through service-learning to assist struggling third graders by helping them build literacy skills. Third and middle grade students work one-on-one, in an after-school setting, following a preset lesson plan focused on reading comprehension.

RBBB was founded to address a serious problem in Arizona’s youth. Students not reading at grade level by the end of third grade are four times less likely to graduate high school; yet 85 percent of Arizona third graders from low-income families are not reading on grade level.

“Read Better Be Better is built on the belief that all children deserve the chance to succeed and the knowledge that literacy is a stepping stone to academic and life-long success,” said Sophie Etchart, founder and CEO. “If a child can read proficiently by the end of third grade, there is an 89% chance that student will graduate high school, regardless of poverty.”

“Our program empowers students to recognize their own potential, and the opportunity for older kids in the community to be part of the solution,” said Etchart. “The youth leaders commit our curriculum to memory and implement it at home with younger siblings; younger students speak up in the classroom to convince their peers of the importance of reading. That is how we effect lasting, societal change.”

Kick off for Read Better Be Better’s Spring 2019 semester began the week of January 28, 2019 and finished the week of February 11, 2019. Each after school program runs for 10 weeks and accommodates each location’s individual schedule.

Read Better Be Better Spring 2019 Participating Schools (by order of program launch week):

ESTRELLA VISTA ELEMENTARY

COUNTRY PLACE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

BUCKEYE ELEMENTARY

BALES ELEMENTARY

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB, BOB & RENEE PARSONS BRANCH

CENTERRA MIRAGE STEM ACADEMY

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB, WARNER A. GABEL BRANCH

WHITTIER ELEMENTARY

ENCANTO ELEMENTARY

CAROL G PECK ELEMENTARY

SUNDANCE ELEMENTARY

WESTPARK ELEMENTARY

MICHAEL ANDERSON ELEMENTARY

DESERT THUNDER SCHOOL

BARCELONA ELEMENTARY

SHEELY FARMS ELEMENTARY

COLLIER ELEMENTARY

WILDFLOWER SCHOOL

INCA ELEMENTARY

MARIONNEAUX ELEMENTARY

STEVEN R. JASKINSKI ELEMENTARY

TRES RIOS SERVICE ACADEMY

FINE ARTS ACADEMY

LITTLETON ELEMENTARY

QUENTIN ELEMENTARY

LONGVIEW ELEMENTARY

ARIZONA DESERT ELEMENTARY

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB, HARRY & SANDY ROSENZWEIG BRANCH

COPPER TRAILS SCHOOL

DESERT STAR SCHOOL

ELISEO C. FELIX SCHOOL

SOLANO ELEMENTRY

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB, I.G. HOLMES BRANCH

AUGUSTUS H SHAW JR. MONTESSORI

CORDOVA ELEMENTARY

P.H. GONZALES ELEMENTARY

For more information about Read Better Be Better, visit www.readbetterbebetter.org.

This is another insightful slide about the market from the Cromford Report. Notice the little yellow highlights. They show how the seller’s market has weakened at those two points since the great recession, but how they started back up again within a couple months. 

This means that when this market change happens, it will happen quickly. 

What does that mean for you?

BUYERS: Get your financing in order. As we will discover in tomorrow’s post,  a re-balanced market could happen within a month or so. You are in a great place to start looking. Choose only the best home for you and don’t be afraid to haggle.

SELLERS: This one is tough for you. If you wait, prices could come down. This reminds us of the old saying about investing, “you’ll never know where the highest and lowest points are, but if you are pretty close, you are doing well.” 

Real estate is not the stock market. You need a home and you need to respond to what life gives you. So, to be ready, do those improvements and make the house really shine. Stand out from the others!

For more analysis, call us at 602-456-9388.