Peoria Progress Peoria Progress
January 2, 2020 March 7, 2019
Peoria Times
ity is a Thriving
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big draw Studio, Inc., a from Iron Key her mothOF COMMERCE was for Frankie Eklund and Magnificent Hansen of Matix horses the er Betty their two miniature everyone from first Minis with elves for pictures. Thank you to with came out to our Hun- dressed you to Ken Parsons and Peocommunity who Open House with Thank coffee P83 Jam and Rotary for providing and tington University. donations, and gift ria North chocolate and Antonio Thanks to the to answer the hol- and hot for the great food. able cards we were 40 families from the Sluggers you to Lowe’s Lake Pleasant, for Thank Diamond iday wishes Peoria, Peoria School District. we Giordano’s and AASK for Peoria Unified the gift collection, live Club, 4 Paws Rescue In addition to as well with as well. fun help of bit your a own had quite to partnering with Soup (with our We look forward our community to music from Cold CEO Scot Andrews), more organizations in to give back. president and with the Cookie continue our commitment decorating cookie and henna tattoos House, face painting
BY PEORIA CHAMBER
and Promote your products right signs services with the and visual graphics.
ss happen with Make busine Glendale needs with
staffing you meet your are skilled and ready GCC can help who and recent grads to part-time students and From full-time Services Today to work for you. GCC Career internships, Contact career.services @ gccaz.edu
age in its programs sex, disability or color, national origin, 731-8499. For additional information, (480) on the basis of race, does not discriminate to reach the appointed coordinator: on-discrimination. College District number call the following College system, visit: www.maricopa.edu/n The Maricopa Community Title IX/504 concerns, or activities. For of all coordinators within the Maricopa as well as a listing
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January 2, 2020
Police ‘Ring’ in the New Year BY TOM SCANLON
Peoria Times Managing Editor
NEWS..............4
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Fueled by scanners picking up police chatter, a small section of the population ardently started following law enforcement communications decades ago. In recent years, following the police has gone high tech. And the cops can follow right back. Indeed, police departments around the West Valley are Ring-ing in the New Year. Started as a home security device, Amazon-owned Ring now incorporates door-camera footage with comments and postings, primarily with its Neighbors app. While many users post videos of “porch pirates,” car break-ins and suspicious people wandering up to their front doors, a home security camera is not required to
use Neighbors. Nearly every weekend night, Glendale residents post about hearing gunshots - or were they fireworks? Other users of the free app anonymously (the app assigns generic usernames) post about stolen property, wonder about all the police activity up the street and ask for assistance finding lost pets. The police keep an eye on Ring. Occasionally, a community relations officer will post information to the community. On Dec. 26, the Phoenix Police Department posted this to Glendale Ring/Neighbors users: “Looking for Identification of suspect. “Dec. 13, 2019, between 9:20 - 9:45 p.m. (suspect) fled toward 2700 West Glendale (Avenue). Description black male wearing camouflage clothing- possible turned inside.”
The Neighbors app by Ring allows users to post crimes, videos and ask about police activity. It also has a map to show nearby incidents. (Image courtesy Ring) SEE RING PAGE 2
Peoria homesellers getting top price
BY TOM SCANLON
Peoria Times Managing Editor
SPORTS......... 17
Peoria High winter sports off to a strong start
OPINION.................... 12 BUSINESS.................. 14 SPORTS...................... 16 CALENDAR................ 21 FEATURES.................. 22 RELIGION................... 26 YOUTH....................... 28 CLASSIFIEDS.............. 31
A sage rock preacher once proclaimed, “You can’t always get what you want.” Sorry, Mick Jagger. The West Valley housing market is proving the Rolling Stones wrong on that note. According to RealtyHop, a national real estate listing company, “Glendale ranked in the top 10 hottest housing markets in December, with a -1.92% change in asking price.” “Peoria saw a price drop of only 1.7% —even better than Glendale,” said Shane Lee, a data analyst for RealtyHop. This means Peoria home sellers got almost everything they wanted. On average, Peoria sellers were dropping prices less than 2%, giving them more than 98% of their asking prices. Glendale “increased three spots to become the fifth hottest market this December,” according to the RealtyHop report. “Similar to nearby cities in Arizona, Glendale properties required very small discounts from initial offering to sell.”
RealtyHop’s analysis of more than 300,000 listings showed the West Valley is one of the “healthiest” real estate markets in the country, said Lee. A few other cities around the West Valley showed similar or even smaller price drops, compared to Glendale. “They’re all very healthy,” Lee noted of the West Valley. Indeed, real estate people say West Valley home sellers often get very close to — or even over – the asking price. “Most of Glendale and Peoria (sellers) are getting multiple offers in, which could lead to a sales price over the asking price. Or at least minimizing the price drop,” said Elise Fay, of eXp Realty. Mason Oxendale, of the Realty One Group, said homes in Glendale and Peoria are selling “at or above asking price, because people want to live in a specific location.” He added the sports stadiums and arenas are a big part of the attraction. Peoria didn’t make RealtyHop’s hot list only because it isn’t in the top 100 cities by
population. The data shows West Valley real estate professionals are skillful at “The Art of the Deal,” to quote a book by President Donald Trump. “To talk about price drops, we have to talk about how people are negotiating,” Lee said. “A lot of times sellers will set a higher price. The makes listings stay on the market longer, so you’ll start seeing price drops. Generally speaking, a larger percentage of price drop means sellers are not able to attract buyers. “(Glendale and Peoria) being under 2% (price drop) is very healthy.” While Peoria and Glendale home prices have been increasing, for places like New York and California, the prices here are shockingly low. The headline of a recent RealtyHop blog tells the story: “Must See Apartments in Chelsea for $900,000 and Down.” In Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and San Francisco, residents spend more
SEE HOUSING PAGE 3