2009 March

Tempe Town Lake Creative Path Arts Walk previews Tempe Music Festival

March 30, 2009 By Dean Ouellette Leave a Comment

The Tempe Music Festival is coming up on April 3-4 (more details in the next couple of days) and to help celebrate the Tempe Town Lake is holding a Creative Path Arts Walk. The free event will celebrate the art around the lake.

The walk will be held from 5-8pm on Tuesday March 31st. The event will start at the Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway and will head west towards Priest Road.

Grammy award nominee William Eaton is scheduled to perform a free concert at the amphitheater along the path.

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/digg_32.png

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/reddit_32.png

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/stumbleupon_32.png

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/delicious_32.png

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/furl_32.png

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/newsvine_32.png

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/technorati_32.png

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/google_32.png

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/facebook_32.png

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/yahoobuzz_32.png

http://deansellsaz.com/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/twitter_32.png

Filed Under: Events, Uncategorized Tagged With: Creative Path Arts Walk, Tempe Music Festival, Tempe Town Lake

Down payment initiative program for Chandler and Mesa

March 25, 2009 By Dean Ouellette Leave a Comment

Housing Our Communities has a down payment assistance program they are currently running in Avondale, Chandler and Mesa. While the program is available the organizers of the program said the current money available is limited and on a first come first serve basis.

The American Dream Down Payment Initiative (ADDI) aims to increase the home ownership rate, especially among lower income households. They also aim to help revitalize and stabilize the communities they are involved in.

How much is available? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Down Payment Programs Tagged With: ADDI, Avondale, Chandler, down payment assistance, Housing our communities, Mesa

What You See Isn’t Always What You Get in interest rates

March 24, 2009 By Justin McHood Leave a Comment

Guest Column from Justin McHood.

Is that interest rate you just saw on that advertisement too good to be true?

Have you recently seen an advertisement recently that caught your eye by saying something like “4.5% INTEREST RATES AVAILABLE” only to find out when you call the number that there isn’t a 4.5% interest rate available?

It happens all the time.

And there are two possible reasons for this:

The 4.5% interest rate was never really available in the first place
The 4.5% interest rate was available – on the day that the advertisement was printed and mailed

Since I happen to be a mortgage guy myself, I will give whoever-printed-the-advertisement-that-you-saw-with-4.5%-on-it the benefit of the doubt… and here is a simple explanation of how this could happen. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Financing Tagged With: interest rates, Teaser rates

New Phoenix downpayment assistance program could help with Phoenix condo and home purchases

March 17, 2009 By Dean Ouellette Leave a Comment

The City of Phoenix is launching a new program which will help homebuyers in the city purchase single family homes and condominiums. Potential homebuyers may qualify to receive up to $15,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance to help buy foreclosed properties in the city.

Phoenix is calling the program the Phoenix Neighborhood Stabilization Program Homeownership Assistance Program. Say that ten times quick.

The money the buyer receives [Read more...]

Filed Under: Phoenix Condos Tagged With: Phoenix Condos, Phoenix downpayment assistance program

Tempe condo market numbers for February

March 15, 2009 By Dean Ouellette Leave a Comment

A little late, but as they say, better late than never. Here are the market numbers for the Tempe condo market in February 2009 and how they compared to January 2009, February 2008 and the past year average.

	February 08	January 09	February 09	Past Year
Sold	7	7	6	110
<$350K	4	6	6	86
>$350K	2	3	0	24
Low $	$120,000	$79,500	$73,000	$70,000
Avg $	$469,949	$169,429	$113,216	$231,198
Median $	$162,000	$130,000	$103,700	$174,500
High	$1,166,368	$355,000	$180,000	$1,098,827
Avg DOM*	35	102	156	100

* Average days on market for condo units before sold.

The numbers that really jump out are the DOM and average price. There was a lack of luxery Tempe condo sales in February which hurt the overall numbers.

Filed Under: Tempe Condos Tagged With: Market Reports, Tempe Condos

What to do in Tempe this weekend

March 13, 2009 By Dean Ouellette Leave a Comment

Sorry, I had the hike as this weekend, but it is actually Saturday the 21st of March.

Wondering what to do in Tempe this weekend? You have a lot of options. On Saturday March 14th how about joining me and the good folks over at RailLife for a family hike up the “A” Mountain at the campus of ASU. The easiest way to get there is to take the METRO light rail to the 3rd and Mill station and join us at the Mills End Cafe at 310 Mill Ave. We will be meeting at 8am.

What would a weekend in Tempe be without a trip to the Tempe Beach Park. On Saturday and Sunday the Arizona Aloha Festival will be held down by the lake. The Festival will feature performers demonstrating different traditions of the South Pacific Island. You don’t need to visit Hawaii or Fiji to learn about this culture, just take a ride to the Tempe Beach Park.

Like classic cars? Then I will see you on Saturday March 14th at the Tempe Parking Classic. This classic car show will be held from 9am-6pm at the new 1700 space parking garage on 5th St just east of Tempe City Hall. Come Back Buddy (a Buddy Holly tribute band) will be playing from noon-3pm. Admission to this event is free

And maybe on Sunday you will want to enjoy a ball park hotdog. Tempe’s own Cactus League team the Los Angeles Angels will be playing the Chicago Cubs at Tempe Diablo Stadium at 1:05.

Filed Under: Tempe Events Tagged With: Arizona Aloha Festival, Tempe Events, Tempe Parking Classic

Mesa passes Proposition 300, Gaylord Resort could be boom to economy

March 11, 2009 By Dean Ouellette 1 Comment

gaylordrednering1 Mesa did it! They overwhelmingly passed Proposition 300 which lays the groundwork to bringing in a Gaylord Resort and Conference Center to East Mesa. Not only did Mesa pass the initiative, it passed with 84% voting in favor. While no one wants to overstate what the this could mean to Mesa and the East Valley, I have seen first hand what it did in Texas and Tennessee. Based on those results I am very optimistic it will be a huge success beyond most peoples wildest dreams.

Here is a comment that was recently posted on my blog by a Realtor at MBY Realty in Texas:

I am a realtor in the Grapevine, Texas area, and I also live in Grapevine. The Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center opened in our city in 2004. Since then, the economic growth the city has seen is amazing! The Gaylord Texan property is easily the best resort and convention facility in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. Our city is now nationally known for the home of this resort. The Gaylord property runs guest shuttles all day every day to our historic main street and shopping malls. They also host huge, months-long summer and Holiday festivities that are attended regularly by thousands from the Dallas Forth Worth Metroplex. Every Christmas season all our friends and family visit their spectacular lights display, and world famous ICE exhibit. Throughout the year they also feature fantastic live shows, music, cooking classes and seasonal events. It goes without saying that having the resort in our city is enjoyable, prestigious, and the economic ramifications have been beyond our best expectations. I don’t think you will find a person in Grapevine, Texas that isn’t happy that Gaylord Resorts chose our city.

Filed Under: Mesa Tagged With: Economic Development, Gaylord Resort, Mesa, Prop 300

Real Estate agent not looking out for their seller? Or do you agree with the decision?

March 11, 2009 By Dean Ouellette 12 Comments

centerpoint-condominiums One of my best friends called me the other day and said his dad may have some buyers for me. His father is a former Air Force General who currently owns an import/export business that does work in China. Many of his contacts in China had been asking about luxury condos in cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix.

I told him I could help him out in the Phoenix and Tempe condo market. There were plenty of Tempe and Phoenix condos on the market that would match what they may be looking for. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Condos Tagged With: Listing agents, Phoenix Condos, Tempe Condos

FHA Kiddie Condo Program: Great condo program for ASU students

March 6, 2009 By Dean Ouellette 1 Comment

Justin McHood at the Arizona Mortgage Team recently wrote a piece about a program called the FHA Kiddie Condo Program. The FHA loan program is a great way for parents to buy a Tempe condo for an ASU student.

The program works just like a regular FHA loan, but it does not require the borrower to love in the condo or home. So the parent of a child heading to the ASU campus can use their credit and income and the child as a co-borrower can reside in the condo. Best part is the program also allows the occupant to pick up some roommates to help cover the mortgage payments.

Tempe has a wide variety of condo options many of which are walking distance to campus or close to the METRO light rail which makes it easy to get to and from classes. So if you are looking for a Tempe condo for your ASU student I recommend you talk to Justin McHood over at the Arizona Mortgage Team and see if this program would work for you.

Filed Under: Tempe Condos Tagged With: ASU Condo, FHA Kiddie Condo, FHA Loans, Ligth Rail, Tempe Condo