Every year the Hance Park Conservancy puts together a fundraiser to raise money to improve Margaret T. Hance Park.

It’s a beautiful affair, and worth getting some friends together for, if you can.

Save the date now, as this one fills up quickly.

“Inspired by a similar “dinner in white” that began in Paris 30 years ago, Noche en Blanco has a character unique to Phoenix. Guests will arrive dressed all in white, share in a sunset toast, and partake in gourmet picnics paired with fine wine. This will be a fun, elegant event with long rows of tables draped in white, strings of lights and stars overhead, featuring live music and dancing.”

Little known fact: the deck park tunnel, under Margaret T. Hance Park, was the final connection point for the I-10. As of its completion, you could drive, uninterrupted from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

Any-whoooo… Here is what the organizers say about themselves, for background.

The Hance Park Conservancy is a catalyst for public space renewal in Phoenix, advocating for the park and protecting its future.

Established in 2010, the Hance Park Conservancy is a community-based, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It is comprised of community and business leaders committed to ensuring a bright future for Hance Park, and by extension, the greater Phoenix Metropolitan Regionʼs 4.2 million residents. Instrumental in developing the Hance Park Master Plan, the Hance Park Conservancy’s mission is to activate the park with programming for the entire community.

Hance Park is a 32-acre public green space in the heart of Downtown Phoenix, situated in the midst of great cultural, arts, and community institutions. The park offers year-round events and activities, an active dog park, and several amenities.

The Hance Park Conservancy, in partnership with the City of Phoenix and Phoenix Community Alliance, have endeavored to redesign and redevelop Hance Park into a vibrant urban park and signature destination that becomes a catalyst for positive change in the community.

Signature parks throughout the nation are unique, must-see spaces that inspire community pride, economic development, and tourism. Great cities need great parks.

For more information, visit hancepark.org.

I plan to be there. It’s always a beautiful time.

A few months ago, I reported on the Facebook Get Your PHX page about an effort by Home Depot to purchase land and demolish some Haver-style apartments at about 20th St and Indian School Rd.

Some dedicated people got together and fought the effort, siting the fact that this new “smaller” store would (1) affect neighbors directly behind the store and (2) endanger the intimate local hardware stores where you can actually get your questions answered (oops, did I type that out loud?).

In my experience, the Home Depot at 36th and Thomas has done damage to the neighborhoods to the south of that box store.

The dedicated and empowering Carolyn Lavender wrote a public statement after her and others’ community organizing efforts paid off and Home Depot decided to pound sand.

Here are some excerpts:

I would like to formally announce that Home Depot is no longer trying to build at 22^nd Street and Indian School Road, Phoenix. Attached is the letter from the lawyers as confirmation.

Jerry Jacobs of DM Ventures, the owner and investor who currently owns the commercial strip and the empty lot, will continue to rent to the current businesses that are there for the near future. He will come up with a new plan for the properties. We hope to be part of this conversation so that there will be a plan that we support.

We believe that the 22 Haver inspired mid-century apartments owned by MODE are no longer being sold and are safe from demolition at this time. But this still needs to be confirmed.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in this fight. This was a true community effort that we can all be proud of. We are grateful to Mac McDonald and the Loma Linda Neighborhood Association for making us aware of the Home Depot plan through Nextdoor.com and a meeting at the school.

Community members and neighbors attended the Loma Linda meeting, a meeting held by the lawyers at CCV church, multiple Camelback Village Planning Committee meetings, a Councilperson Laura Pastor coffee talk gathering, and an invitation only meeting held by Laura Pastor in her offices.

A number of organizations provided valuable assistance in this effort including the Greater Coalition of Phoenix Neighborhoods, Modern Phoenix, and Local First Arizona. 240 individuals joined this opposition mailing list.

Robrt Pela of New Times researched and wrote an in-depth article on this fight that didn’t get published due to delay from Pastor’s office and the Home Depot withdrawal. This doesn’t even fully describe the amount of energy and effort that everyone provided in this fight. Home Depot tried to build a store at 22^nd Street and Indian School and backed out due the large community response. 

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 Phoenix history. 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 “at” hotmail.com.

Local history buffs know that Phoenix street names have dramatically changed or been slightly altered over the years. The reasons vary, but this is not about those changes. Rather, this is about place name changes.

The Arizona Republic article headline October 17, 1938, charged, “Residents Persist in Using Wrong Names for City Parks.” What was that all about? At the time Phoenix had nearly 20 parks and had recently completed Encanto Park. Some Phoenicians continued to call it Dorris-Norton Park or Jenckes Park, and the article even mentioned how most people did not use Phoenix in the “title” of South Mountain Park. Simply put, the city parks department wanted the populace to use the correct names for its parks!

So on to James Park. Don’t recognize that one either?  It still exists, but you will have to read further to figure out where it is and what it is now called.

First, how did this 11-acre park come to be called James Park? It all had to do with a realty deal. James Realty Company, founded by William Knox James, owned large tracts of land which the company subdivided for residential development. The future park land was in an area that was, despite the on-going depression, experiencing growth.

It’s unclear whether the city approached James Realty or vice versa which really is not important. Nevertheless, the records show that in February 1935, James Realty sold this tract of land in Ranchitos Bonitos subdivision (your first clue) to the city of Phoenix for $12,000. The city and newspaper articles all referred to this purchase as James Park. Seems to be a reasonable conclusion.

The city/parks department wasted no time in putting out bids for a pool, bath house and well (clue #2). Securing funds from the Public Works Administration for the construction of these three park elements, work began in early 1936. The pool was billed as modern and attractive. It opened in the summer of 1937. Yet, to ensure that the neighbors would use the new park land before the pool opened, three softball diamonds were laid out, ramadas were built, a tennis court was constructed, and playground equipment plus a sand pile was installed for children. Over time, two basketball courts were added, the sand pile was removed, new playground equipment was added, and only one softball diamond remains (clue #3 for some of you).

When the pool opened in 1937, the current name was used. However, most Arizona Republic newspaper articles that year continued to call the park, James Park. So what is the name? James Park is actually Coronado Park, a “’harmonizing name’” according to that 1938 article.

I ran in to an old friend the other day who has been working in the solar industry for a couple decades.

He told me about this new business that he and some partners are starting. The business is the creation and deployment of vans and mobile shelters that combine both solar power and battery power.

Their ultimate goal is to have a product that the government or non-profits can deploy in emergency situations where people need access to emergency power. They are also marketing these mobile solar units to festivals, like Burning Man.

The business is called Rent.solar, and no, I’m not being paid to write about them. I just think what they are doing is innovated and could define the future of what we expect to see in places that need energy, or events that want to reduce their carbon footprint.

They describe these solar trailers and shelters as “nano-grid technology.

Well, I suppose that that a traditional gas generator could be described as “nano-grid technology”, too. But this is much more promising.

You can imagine a trailer pulling up to a disaster area, either packed with lithium ion batteries for emergency power, or also carrying refrigeration units that are powered by batteries and solar.

That can be a game-changer in how FEMA responds to some hard-hit areas.

It is tough to describe how much power they deliver. The average house needs about 3 to 4 kWs, for instance.

One trailer delivers only about that much. So, what good is it? Well, in a disaster situation, the use of power is much different. The trailer may power one piece of equipment that cools a large shelter where many people stay. Or, it may power medical services.

According to my friend, Lee, “Given the capital intensive nature of solar energy systems, we’ve adopted a cost-sharing approach to accomplish this mission by working with community partners who rent our solar trailers and shelters when they are not being used for this purpose.”

I was also impressed that this business started with one student, who was fulfilling a class requirement.

That gives me hope that the next generation will think more creatively about solving not only our climate change challenge, but also be able to deliver emergency services at the same time.

In this post I’m going to give you some crucial information that you need if you intend to own a property that you will use for short-term rental.

But first, an admission.

When I was in the legislature I voted in favor of Senate Bill 1350 in 2016, which prohibited cities and towns from banning short-term rentals. It also put in place a structure to tax the services and it specified what municipalities could do to regulate them.

So, blame me if you want for how people have abused our neighborhoods with ill-managed short term rental properties. I hear you and I empathize.

I know many of my neighbors in historic neighborhoods, in particular, are very concerned about whether these homes will be treated well while being used as short-term rentals.

I stand by the vote because I think we need to be creative in the new sharing economy. However, I also remember saying at the time that we will have to re-visit this in the future.

We knew that cities and towns would confront new challenges in regulating short-term rentals and I, for one, felt it was best to see what those challenges would be and prepare to respond to them legislatively, if need be. Good government should be able to adopt new realities like the sharing economy and should be responsive as we learn how to adapt to the needs of the public.

So, I support the new law passed by the Legislature and Governor this year, which gives more teeth to cities and law enforcement. In no rational interpretation of the law, should a residential home be a hotel where massive parties are thrown and the needs of the neighborhood cast aside.

So, I hope the law works and we see the owners of short-term rentals respecting their neighborhoods.

Even given that, I’ve been shocked by how many properties are being used for short-term rentals by large corporations, which have purchased gads of properties, with little attention paid to the health of the neighborhood.

None of us saw that specific problem coming. Perhaps we should have.

My friend Tina Tamboer at the Cromford Report has specific concerns about short term rentals, as how they relate to the over-all real estate market. Here are a few:

1. They can deprive families of homes.
2. They can drive prices up because a buyer of a short-term rental home values it based on ROI, not just as an affordable place to live.
3. If we don’t track which homes are short-term rentals, we won’t be able to predict a possible flood of homes on the market if the economy drops and the owners are not seeing the income they expected.

Having laid all that groundwork (and I felt like that context is important for anybody who wants to buy a home for this purpose), I want to cover what you need to know about this new law if you are going to operate a short-term rental property.

The new law, which you can read directly here, will make the following changes to current statutes:

1. It allows municipalities to restrict the types of events that happen at these properties –think weddings and huge parties that would require a permit if planned in most other spaces.
2. If you own and market a short-term rental, you must provide a primary contact to the municipality; a person that law enforcement or neighbors can call if there is a nuisance at the property.
3. If you provide that information to the city or town, they must make a reasonable attempt to contact that person in the case of an ordinance violation.
4. If you are cited and fined, but you don’t pay, then the citation gets forwarded to the Arizona Department of Revenue for collection and possible interest-based fees.

So, in short, if you need our help to identify a short-term rental property, we are going to refer you to these laws.

We believe in being good neighbors in our personal lives, and we have turned away business if we think they are not going to be good neighbors.

In the end, I think that we need solutions to our housing crisis in Arizona. While short-term rentals might be making that harder to solve, it is here to stay. As agents, we want to get you the best information about the laws and your responsibilities.

If you have more questions, call us at 602-456-9388.

This little snapshot of the market is really useful, and the folks at the Cromford Report put it out every month.

You can see that the active listings are down by 5.6%, valley-wide. At the same time the listings under contract are up by 7.4% and the number of closed sales is up by about 1%.

What does that mean?

It means we are burning through the available inventory. It also means that there continues to be an upward pressure on prices. That is why you see the Months of Supply graph going down from 2.5 months to 2 months.

The way to look at this particular snapshot of supply is to ask, “if no other houses came on the market and people continue to purchase at current rates, how many months would it take to totally exhaust the inventory?”

It’s a fanciful notion, to be sure, because people will always list homes. But it gives us an idea of how fast things are selling.

The listing success rate is about the same this July as it was last July and the July before that. So, the strong seller’s market is steady over three years.

If we turn to the Cromford Index, you can see that the seller’s advantage that had weakened at the end of last year is rocketing upward right now.

The big question will be what happens when the summer draws to and end and we see what is typically the second-busiest market time every year, between September and late November?

To be sure, this summer has been pretty busy. Will buyers hold off, waiting for prices to cool, or will they calculate that prices will continue upward?

I continue to predict that, if/when a market correction comes, it will be less dramatic in CenPho, where we can’t seem to find space for new construction. Inventory will continue to be tight.

If you need help building a strategy to sell or buy a home, call us at 602-456-9388.

A funny thing happened in July and it may affect the August market update.

Well, “funny” may not be funny for buyers.

Look at this chart of new listings that come on every day in July, compared over several years.

It’s hard to see, but there is a light blue line at the bottom of the grouping of lines, with the number 6,119. That represents the number of new listings in Maricopa county that came on in July.

Notice that the July 2019 number is at least 1,000 listings lower than the next closest line. So, we have had fewer listings coming on the market this July than any July since 2010.

I also turned on all years available in the system and it is the lowest July since 2001 –and there were fewer houses in the valley back then.

Now, when you look at just listings above $500,000, that difference disappears. But it is strong for homes under $500,000.

What does that mean? Should we be alarmed?

Well, we don’t know yet. (Sorry to those of you who like certainty. You won’t get it on this one.)

It could be a blip. This trend started in June and it could disappear in August. We need to watch it.

If it continues, then those of you who are thinking of listing your home should go ahead and list (especially those at or below $500,000). There is scarcity in the market in that case and it gives you an advantage. Further, people need homes, so they will be looking.

If you are a buyer, be patient, as it may take you a while to find what you need. Also, be ready to go see a house and write an offer immediately if you like the home.

There is still a scarcity in the market and this just happens.

NOTE! This dynamic does not seem to be happening in the CenPho historic zip codes. See the chart below. So, for these zip codes, the July listing numbers seem to be right in line with previous months.

So, if you need to build a strategy around selling or buying, please call us at 602-456-9388.

As realtors and long-time Phoenix residents, we know that light rail has helped improve neighborhoods, attract business and transport many people who would otherwise contribute to daily traffic jams.

So, it is alarming that Dark Money groups from out of state, backed by the Koch brothers, are putting money in to an effort to effectively shut down light rail growth in Phoenix.

Further, they are attempting to place arbitrary caps on the city’s ability to spend money on our priorities or recover from massive cuts made during the Great Recession.

City leaders such as Mayor Gallego, a majority of city council members and many non-profit and trade organizations have created a campaign to ask city voters to vote NO on Prop 105 and Prop 106.

See the website with information here.

Prop 105 would:

1. Create a prohibition agains further rail projects in Phoenix;
2. Redirect billions of dollars of federal support away from Phoenix infrastructure;
3. Threaten our ability to plan for population growth;
4. Increase crowding on our streets.

Prop 106 would make permanent any cuts that leaders will be forced to make during tough times. To put that another way, if we make cuts during an up-coming recession or economic downturn as we did in the Great Recession, those cuts would be permanent.

So, where the city has been restoring services and making the pension program stable again since the recession, Prop 106 would make those cuts permanent and would force drastic cuts to the services that our citizens and neighborhoods rely on. This is simply reckless.

IMPORTANT: This election has been forced on the ballot on August 27th, when many people are on vacation. Early ballots go out on July 29th. So, be certain to get request yours by calling 602-261-VOTE (8683). See the city website for more.

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 “at” hotmail.com.

“I have been influenced by the needs of Phoenix and by the fact that this is home.” With that, Celora M. Stoddard who had recently been discharged from the Army after serving in France during WWI, declared his intent to build a special complex. Arizona looked promising to Stoddard after the war.

Stoddard had originally come out west from Binghamton, NY as a young boy and spent some time in Stoddard, AZ, a small copper mining community northeast of Mayer which had been named after his father. When he moved to Phoenix along with his parents, he continued working for the family company. Later he formed his own firm and focused on investments rather than copper, but still maintained his managerial position with Stoddard Mining.

One of Stoddard’s investments was The Rose Tree, an exquisite confectionery shop and tea room which opened in October 1914. It certain gave Donofrio’s some competition although it was hard for Donofrio’s to surpass The Rose Tree’s twice a week dances. Stoddard also purchased lots in newly opened subdivisions as so many other Phoenicians were doing.

In 1917, Stoddard was part of the Great Western Film Corporation whose initial aim was to establish a film studio in Phoenix (Tucson was the competing site). Yes, Stoddard dabbled in a variety of businesses and then the European war changed things. Stoddard registered for the draft, entered the army, took officer’s training, and was shipped to France.

Recognizing that many soldiers who were returning home had moved to Arizona and had no place to live, Stoddard decided to build a “modern up-to-date bungalow court” the summer of 1919. Each unit had five rooms and an individual outdoor sleeping area on the roof which would be used in the summer months. The bungalow court would be “high class,” have janitor service, and a communal garage along with plenty of shade.

Ads touted that the complex of 10-units was located “in the most exclusive residential section.” And where might that be? It was Bennett Place encompassing Central to Seventh Avenue and Roosevelt to Fillmore. Now a portion of Bennett Place is part of Roosevelt Historic District.

One quirky event related to Alexandria Court (the rather romantic sounding name) occurred when Stoddard decided to sell the complex. In fact, he traded the bungalows with Isaac Rosenzweig a local jeweler for 80 acres of farm land near Scottsdale. Apparently both parties were quite satisfied with the deal.

If you ride the light rail down 1^st Avenue today, you go right passed Alexandria Court. Now 815 N. 1^st Avenue (even the numbering has changed from the original) is offices. A far cry from Stoddard’s vision, but they have not been demolished.

As realtors, we want all people to have roofs over their heads and we hate to see families evicted from homes, regardless of whether they purchase a home or not.

That is why you’ve seen me do some postings and videos about issues of homelessness.

There are so many destructive myths about homelessness and why people are evicted from rental homes, and why it happens.

“People are lazy and don’t pay the rent.”

“People don’t take care of the property they live in and deserve to be kicked out.”

“People are not financially responsible.”

What we are learning more and more, especially by analyzing huge amounts of data from around the country, is that there are myths about eviction, just as there are myths about poverty.

Why is it important to have a clear picture of why evictions happen? Well, because we make public policy based on these myths and those policies cost us billions of taxpayer dollars. Shouldn’t we get the causes right before we recommend a treatment?

This podcast on the topic of eviction bursts some of the myths is perfect for your summer listening list. I love podcasts as company when I’m driving or working in the garden. However, these, in particular, are very well-researched and bring out things that I’ve not thought of before.

So, these come highly recommended.

If you want another great series on poverty myths, check out this one from the same team.