We are realtors. And, in the space of this newsletter, we do our best to drive just in that lane. We try not to get too political.

We leave other times for that. We are citizens of our country, after all.

However, we would be remiss if we did not encourage you to sign the Outlaw Dirty Money petition. This ballot initiative would require basic disclosure of what we commonly know of as “dark money.”

No level of government can work properly — from the legislature to the Department of Real Estate, unless we have basic disclosure of the money –often laundered– that is being spent to influence our government.

Please take a moment to learn more at this website and find a location to sign the petition in person.

This cute 2br/2ba, 1,283sf home in Wilshire Park is a great starter home with a huge back yard and room to grow. This home is a great value at $232,900.

This was the second home that we put on the market since the last Clark Report came out. (May was busy!)

The owners have maintained it beautifully, and have recently updated flooring and tub glazing (with 5-year warranty).

The home will convey with the extra freezer and the Kitchen Aid barbecue. The neighborhood is sought-after, due to its proximity to downtown and transportation. Yet, it is secluded enough to be quiet and peaceful.

Learn more on our listings page.

If you are interested in this property, another property or if you are thinking to sell a property, please call us at 602-456-9388.

If you’ve not seen this listing in the Medlock Historic Neighborhood, we hope you don’t feel that you’ve missed the big news.

May was big for our team. Just after our last newsletter, we brought on two new listings. Just missed it!

This massive home is an outlier in Central Phoenix, with six bedrooms and four baths and a two-car garage on a sizable lot. This is a home with room to grow. You will feel like you are in the north country, with all of the dense trees and private landscaping.

All this for $510,000!

Every room benefits from the soft light filtered through the trees outside. The Palo Baracho tree in the front ads an exotic touch. To top it off, this home is in the Medlock Historic Neighborhood, close to shopping, light rail and entertainment.

The home is priced well below the market, as the owner knows that you will probably want to make updates. With homes flying off the market, this is your chance to get a HUGE home in Central Phoenix, to customize to your liking.

See more on our listing page here.

If you have a historic home that you would like to sell, or buy, please give us a call at 602-456-9388.

If you know us, you know that we support Local First Arizona. And, we support Independence Week.

You can save 20% at your favorite local businesses during Independents Week, June 30 – July 8!

Independents Week is Arizona’s only week-long celebration of local businesses that lets you save money while shopping local.

Here’s how it works:

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.

(Obviously, this article was published originally after labor day. We don’t want you to think that you’ve been asleep for three months when you read this.)

In the Good Old Summertime

Labor Day has come and gone. And the memories of summer have rapidly faded away. If only the Phoenix weather reflected the change. But oh no….it’s still HOT! And the natural inclination is to want to cool off in any pool or one of our many lakes.

In “vintage” times, school didn’t start until after Labor Day, and by then the bristling heat had cooled to more “tepid” figures. However, things are different now and we all, young and old alike, ache to find some way to cool off. So, what was it like in the pre and post WWII era? Where were those swimming holes besides Riverside Park before you had one at your house?

Granted the canals were an option before they were cemented, although not always safe. But there were formal, noncity owned pools which often opened in April and closed right after Labor Day. Many even provided picnic areas and dance pavilions.

The Arizona Republic had listings of such places although it can be difficult to sort them all out as they changed owners and names. Cottonwood Pool, opening in 1946, was at 4524 N. 7^th Street by the Grand Canal. Like many pools of its ilk, icy cold water from wells fed the pool and the overflow went back into the canal. Broadway Pool at approximately 20^th Avenue and Broadway was also filled with icy cold well water. The sea blue paint of the pool with silver trim was something to see along with its high and low diving boards. The teen club, Hullabaloo, opened on the site of that pool in 1967.

George Bailey Nelson had two pools. His first near 40^th St and Thomas Road had a sandy bottom when it opened in 1927. After he closed that one in 1944, he built another near 19^th Avenue and Turney. It too had cold well water with the overflow going back into the nearby canal. One frequent user mentioned the pool finish as “sprayed on gunnite [which]was very rough and would tear up the wet skin on your knees.” This popular pool allowed huge tractor inner tubes which was a favorite of boisterous teenagers. When the pool closed in the 1970s, it became a fishing hole.

Joyland Pool near 35^th Street and Van Buren boasted being the largest pool in the valley with its 220’ length when it opened in 1924. It had a sandy beach, multiple diving towers, and a slide. Saguaro Beach located on the current site of Circle K Park in South Phoenix had two pools. The larger round one had a slide and the other was strictly for diving.

Alas, none of these pools survive beyond photos and memories.

In this month’s market update, it certainly feels like some changes are coming, but it may be too soon to tell what they will be.

Our friends at the Cromford Report are seeing some tightening in supply, and thus increased prices.

“We can see that the supply of active listings without a contract dropped again during the month of May but the deficit compared with 2017 narrowed slightly to 13.3%. May was a weaker month for new listings, down about 1% compared to last year. This was a contrast to April which had seen a stronger rate than 2017. We normally see total supply drop between May and June and we still expect this downward trend to continue until September.

The sales count for May was very strong, topping 10,000 for the first time since 2011. However the number of listings under contract at the beginning of June is much lower than last year – down 6%. Even with this possible sign of wavering demand, supply is so weak that sellers still have a huge advantage in negotiations. This situation inevitably leads to price increases and the annual rate of change has reached 9% for average $/SF and 9.5% for median sales price. This growth is about 4 times the inflation rate and with interest rates rising, homes are obviously getting less affordable. At some point this trend will impact demand, which is why we are keeping a close watch on the annual sales rate and the number of listings under contract.

The rise in interest rates does not just tend to lower demand, in the current circumstances it can lower supply too. Home owners with an existing mortgage will be less inclined to move if their next mortgage is going to be at a much higher rate than their existing one. This is more likely to be the case with every passing month. As a result we do not see prices as likely to fall because of interest rate rises, but we do anticipate limited growth in sales volumes.

It is important to compare sales numbers year over year, but we should also point out that the presence of iBuyers means that there are more transactions than there would be without them. In situations where a seller accepts an iBuyer offer, the home is resold again in a matter of months, so we see 2 transactions instead of 1. The first sale is not shown within the MLS numbers but the second almost always is. Both sales appear in the counts when we look at recorded deeds. With iBuyers representing 4% of the re-sale market, counts of recorded sales are about 2% higher than they otherwise would be.

We started referring to the chronic low inventory over 5 years ago and it is now at the lowest level we have seen during those 5 years. Fluctuations in demand are unlikely to have much impact on the market until we see an increasing trend in listing counts. This was the first sign of a slowdown in April 2005 and will be the first sign of a slowdown if and when we get one in the future. It came suddenly and unexpectedly in April 2005 and it may do the same at any time. However, nobody paid any attention in 2005 and I am assuming we are all older and wiser now. Any unusual activity in the listing counts will show up in the daily Tableau charts which we create and study each and every day.”

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.

As members of Local First Arizona, we are big fans of supporting locally-owned banks and credit unions.

Not only are the big national banks bureaucratic, slow and detached from our community, we also have a hard time forgiving them for their role in the Great Recession (as well as how they often mis-handled short sales and foreclosures).

Yep. So, many reasons…

Anyway, there is a great way that you can support your community, local businesses and local banks –switch over!

Local first is hosting a Community Banking Month Celebration this month and we encourage you to check it out.

“Local First Arizona invites you to join local banks, credit unions, and local businesses for our spring gathering at The Newton. Financed locally, this adaptive reuse is the perfect spot to meet local businesses, and local banking options! Enjoy drinks from First Draft Book Bar and complimentary bites from Southern Rail.

RSVP at this link.

ABOUT THE NEWTON
An adaptive reuse project by Venue Projects and John Douglas Architects, The Newton is a mixed-use concept housed inside Phoenix’s former (but iconic) Beef Eaters building. Named after Beef Eaters’ Founder Jay Newton, today The Newton is a place where people can read, dine, gather, and shop. The Newton is home to the Phoenix location of Changing Hands Bookstore,Southern Rail, Southwest Gardener, and Christofolo Schermer Consulting. The Newton is also an event venue, with three private event spaces available for private events and parties.

WHAT TO EXPECT:
The Local First Arizona networking mixers are an excellent way to meet local business community and connect with LFA staff. Meetings are typically held on the third Wednesday of the month from 6:00 PM- 7:30 PM at different local business throughout the Metro Phoenix. We dedicate the first hour to networking, and from time to time include special networking activities, to keep things fresh.

At 7:00 PM we begin announcements, this is when we share upcoming events, organization updates and share news about the local movement. At the end of announcements, we hold a prize drawing, donated by members to showcase their business (local items only and minimum value of $25, please)

Are you new? Need a member benefits refresher? Join us from 5:30PM – 6:00PM for a quick overview of your Local First Arizona membership. Open to new and potential members.

Mixers are open to local business owners, local nonprofits, local charities, other local institutions and their employees. As a courtesy to our host, you must RSVP. For more information email Community Outreach Manager, Kendall Jones at: Kendall@localfirstaz.com