TUSD School Boundary Changes

Tucson Residents, if you are currently looking to purchase a home within the boundaries of the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), then this posting is for you!   Many people with children will use school boundaries as a top-level criteria that they use in deciding where to purchase a new home.  

If the school that your child attends is important to you, you need to be aware that due to budget constraints, TUSD has re-zoned the school boundaries of many of their schools for the upcoming 2013-2014 school year in an attempt to consolidate under-utilized schools into larger ones, and therefore save on costs.  

TUSD has provided the following web page on their website in order to assist you:  http://tusd1.org/contents/distinfo/consolidation/index.asp

Also, TUSD has provided a new interactive boundary map showing the new school boundaries:  http://tusd1.org/contents/distinfo/consolidation/boundary.asp#map

For other Tucson area school districts, such as Amphitheater, Flowing Wells, Marana, etc. you can use the interactive map found here to determine what schools the property you are considering purchasing would attend:  http://gismaps.pagnet.org/SchoolSearch/

Please make sure that you take these boundary changes into consideration if the school that your child attends is important to you!

Stefanie Stehling - NW Tucson, Oro Valley & Marana Real Estate Agent
stefaniestehling@gmail.com

May 2013 Tucson, Oro Valley & Marana Housing Market Analysis

 May 2013 Tucson, Oro Valley & Marana Housing Market Analysis

The Tucson Area of REALTORS® recently released the May 2013 Market data for Tucson, Oro Valley & Marana. A dive into the data reveals that while some indicators were down from April 2013, May 2013 was still a strong month.  What really continues to stand out is the difference from where the Tucson housing market was just a short year ago:

• As sale prices continue to improve, we are seeing more sellers enter the market versus this time last year.  Although inventory remains relatively low right now and slightly decreased from April 2013, the current market doesn't belong only to the sellers, there are good deals to be found most everywhere for buyers also.  However, buyers need to come with good offers in order to be truly considered due to the tighter inventory and stiffer competition.

• As we see home prices continue to improve, we should see more and more sellers looking to enter the market as their homes come out from being "underwater," or negative equity positions.  What remains in question is what will happen with interest rates? We have already seen them move above 4% in the past month and others foresee them moving through the 5% barrier over the next year.  Right now, mortgage interest rates are being artificially suppressed by government manipulation of the economy through Quantitative Easing, or QE.  As the Fed starts to wind down this stimulus, be prepared for mortgage interest rates to begin to rise in response.  Regardless, even at 5%, these are great interest rates to lock in compared to where they have hovered historically.

The outlook for the Tucson area housing market is strong and we expect things to continue on this path through the remainder of this year and into 2014.  The only item on the horizon that could be viewed as a negative at this time would be the anticipated continued increase in home mortgage interest rates, dictated largely by how much the government will continue to manipulate them and the economy as a whole. 

All in all, things continue to look up here in the Tucson area!  Happy buying and selling!

As a Real Estate Agent in Northwest Tucson, Oro Valley & Marana, I work with some of the most successful and respected mortgage lenders in Tucson, feel free visit my website or to email me today to discuss your Real Estate and financing needs in Northwest Tucson, Oro Valley & Marana, AZ.

Tucson MLS May 2013 Market Data

Total Sales Volume:  Overall data for May 2013 showed an increase in the Total Sales volume (sum total of sale prices for all properties sold in May 2013) over April 2013 by approximately $19M.  This is a 19.16% increase in total sales volume over May 2012.  This clearly shows that not only are sales prices trending upward over the past year but is a continuing indication of a strengthening housing market that is beginning to recover from the low point of 2011.
Active Listings:  The May 2013 inventory of homes for sale decreased slightly by 1.84% from April 2013 to 3,953 units.  However compared to May 2012, the number of Active Listings increased 11.54%, indicating that market conditions continue to improve for sellers.   Overall inventory remains relatively low and I expect it to remain low over the summer months.  With low inventory, that means that your offers as a buyer need to be "good offers" or you will most likely be shut out by the stiff competition you face.
Average Sales Price:  The Average Sales Price for May 2013 was $190,156, down slightly over April 2013 by 1.04%.  However the Average Sales Price over May 2012 ($173,987) year over year was up by 9.29% or more than $16,000!  This is great news and shows a clear trend in increasing sales prices since the low point of 2011 and is further evidence of a recovering Tucson area housing market.
Average List Price:  Average List Price was down slightly (1%) over April to $196,508.  However, the year over year increase from May 2012 is 8.62%.  At this time last year, homes were listed on average for $180,905.  This is approximately a $16,000 increase in average home list price for the past 12 months and is welcome news!
Average Days on Market:  Average Days on Market for May 2013 was 57 days, this is a significant improvement over May 2012 in which Average DoM was 67 days.  It is just another indicator of the lower inventory and the hotter competition amongst the buyers to secure the property.

Other interesting data:

Oro Valley Median Sales Price:     $220,600; up 5% from May 2012 Median of $210,000
Marana Median Sales Price:          $180,000; up 25% from May 2012 Median of $143,390
NW Tucson Median Sales Price:   $197,500; up 16% from May 2012 Median of $170,000

Tucson Active Listings:          3,953; up 11.5% from May 2012 Active Listings of 3,544
Oro Valley Active Listings:     389; down 17% from May 2012 Active Listings of 471
Marana Active Listings:         410; up 11% from May 2012 Active Listings of 368

Tucson Sale Price as Percent of List Price:       98%; even with May 2012 SP/LP of 98%
Oro Valley Sale Price as Percent of List Price:  97%; even with May 2012 SP/LP of 98%
Marana Sale Price as Percent of List Price:        97%; even with May 2012 SP/LP of 98%

All data referenced on this page is courtesy of the Tucson Association of Realtor's Monthly Statistic report for May, 2013.

Stefanie Stehling - Real Estate Agent serving Northwest Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, AZ 
stefaniestehling@gmail.com 

Oro Valley 4th of July Fireworks and Festivities

Well, the hot summer months in the Sonoran Desert are upon us. 

Oro Valley Fireworks

But that certainly doesn't mean that fun comes to an end!  The Town of Oro Valley is hosting their annual Fireworks show at the Hilton El Conquistador Resort.  This annual event is always a crowd-pleaser and the fun gets started at 3:00 PM at James D. Kriegh park with music and fun for the kids, like bounce houses and a rock-climbing wall, and best of all this event is FREE!!

For a very small admission fee of $2 for adults and $1 for children, you can also participate in the fun events taking place at the Oro Valley Aquatic Center on July 4th as well.

Full details can be found here:  Oro Valley Fourth of July Fireworks

And don't forget to have some rain gear on hand, it seems the 4th of July in Oro Valley always sees some Monsoon rain in the late afternoon and evening hours. ;-) 


Stefanie Stehling - Real Estate Agent serving Northwest Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, AZ 
stefaniestehling@gmail.com 

Mortgage Interest rates and QE - Information for prospective NW Tucson, Oro Valley and Marana home buyers

Although Fannie says that the recent uptick in mortgage interest rates shouldn't affect the housing market recovery, they did see fit to revise their long-range forecast for rates upwards by .5% to 4.7% for a 30yr fixed loan by the end of 2013.  This revision was based primarily on two things, first was the larger-than-expected jump that rates have taken in the past month and then second, the ongoing speculation that the government manipulation of the markets, otherwise known as Quantitative Easing (or QE), is going to start winding down.  
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake all but put an end to the speculation in a press conference yesterday when he stated that the Fed would be looking to put the brakes on QE later this year and potentially end the program sometime in 2014.  

Without issuing an opinion about QE itself, I'll leave that to the economists, what is widely known is that QE is responsible for helping suppress mortgage interest rates and keep them at their historic lows that we've recently been experiencing.  It is a safe bet to assume that as the program is slowed to a stop that we will see a corresponding increase/jump in mortgage interest rates.

You can read more about this here:

Fannie Mae: Rising mortgage rates won’t trip up recovery | Inman News



Stefanie Stehling - Real Estate Agent serving Northwest Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, AZ
stefaniestehling@gmail.com

Real Estate Contingencies

http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20130606_contingencies.htm
This is a great article about real estate contingencies. There are many reasons for a contingency as part of your home purchase transaction, the most common being the need to sell your current home before purchasing your new one.
Contingencies are put in place to protect the home buyer, however you should always be mindful that in a hot market, excessive contingencies may work against you as the Seller may choose a more attractive deal, one that might have fewer contingencies.

Negotiate Your Best House Buy

• Negotiate Your Best House Buy

  Keep your emotions in check and your eyes on the goal, and you’ll pay less when purchasing a home. Read

Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.

Copyright 2013 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®