Gilbert Sun News Real Estate Guide - April 2020

REAL ESTATE

GILBERT SUN NEWS | APRIL 19, 2020

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Gilbert market remains undeniably strong

BY MINDY JONES NEVAREZ GSN Guest Writer

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here is a lot of uncertainty in the world and yet one thing remains, the housing market in Arizona is going strong despite the challenges many families face.

While it is impossible to predict where we will land when the COVID-19 crisis is over, we have plenty of data to report on where we are at today, the trends we expect to see continue and the need to remain vigilant in sharing this information not readily available on the national or even local news.

Overall, the Valley continues to experience further decline of inventory with

Melanie Nemetz

supply 50.4 percent less than normal at this time. With demand just 4.6 percent below normal, there is still a greater number of buyers than available homes to buy.

With builders tempering their building and access to their model homes by appointment only, we anticipate that the influx of new construction inventory we were all so eagerly awaiting might be delayed.

In 2006, builders were building for mostly non-existent home owners and we were left with many half-built communities that weren’t completed until several years later – which is very different from what we see today with a backlog of buyers and not enough quick move-in options or lots released for

A stunning TW Lewis home in the award winning community of Power Ranch Listed for $645,000

them.

The housing market of today is different but when chaos ensues, it is a natural human reaction to reflect back on the last time we felt chaos in the local market.

This time around, we’ve got a normal amount of well-qualified buyers whose numbers may be impacted by the pandemic-related economic turmoil and an extreme shortage of inventory which might see surge as qualified sellers liquidate.

That contrasts with the abnormally large (and mostly fraudulent) number

of buyers in the 2008 market that generated an excess of inventory. We actually saw rental prices increase the last time due to the lack of real people in need of housing whereas this time around rental prices are still on the rise.

We recently helped a family living in a long-term rental purchase the home from their landlords – proving that even in the most challenging market, there can be a win-win for both buyers and sellers.

The buyers locked in an interest rate

see MARKET page RE3

SPOTLIGHT home

Welcome to Cooley Station in Gilbert!

See Page 4

Amy Jones Group

Listed for $315,000!

Our extensive, high quality marketing of your home combined with our thorough preparation of listing the home for sale, will help your home sell faster and for more money. Here is a sample of the marketing for our listings: ◆ Home Staging Report by Interior Designer & Stager ◆ Professional video of home ◆ Professional photos of home ◆ Twilight photos ◆ Community photos ◆ Aerial drone video/photos ◆ 3D Interactive floor plan - Matterport www.fosteringre.com Each office is independently owned and operated ◆ Open house first weekend on the market

480.221.3034

See Page 4

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REAL ESTATE

GILBERT SUN NEWS | APRIL 19, 2020

Mortgage forbearance can be a minefield REALTOR.COM

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hen Nicholas Dahl, 36, called Chase Bank to find out about his options for mortgage forbearance, an automated voice informed him the wait time would be 43 hours and 45 minutes.

Dahl hasn’t been able to draw a paycheck since all nonessential transportation businesses in Illinois were shuttered on March 21 due to the pandemic.

And he doesn’t know how much longer he and his wife will be able to keep making payments on the three-bedroom house in the Chicago suburbs.

After three hours and 45 minutes on hold, and several times where he heard a woman saying “hello” before going back to the call music, he finally hung up. He emailed the bank for information instead.

Chase responded that he could receive mortgage forbearance for 90 days. During those three months, Dahl

wouldn’t have to make his payments and wouldn’t incur late fees, get reported to credit agencies or risk foreclosure.

But once that period was over, all the missed payments would come due at once.

“I don’t really think it’s worth it,” says Dahl, who’s losing about $5,000 in income each month his business is closed.

“I don’t really want to pay four mortgage payments in one.”

Dahl is one of many thousands of Americans who are having trouble making their monthly mortgage payments due to the coronavirus pandemic—or will soon if the crisis drags on.

The widespread misery spread by COVID-19 has left many homeowners scrambling to figure out how to pay their mortgages. Homeowners with government-backed loans – and even many without – are being offered up to 12 months of forbearance, doled out in 90-day chunks.

But this temporary fix could result in

another wave of foreclosures if additional assistance isn’t provided.

Many homeowners could be asked to pay back all of those missed mortgage bills in one lump sum at the end of the forbearance period – a near impossible feat for many who can’t afford their payments today and don’t know when the economy will recover.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration say their borrowers, who make up slightly more than half of all buyers, are never required to make lump-sum payments.

They also offer various assistance plans, some more generous than others.

But even those homeowners will also eventually have to make good on what they owe, a hardship for those out of work. Those who can’t could eventually lose their homes.

“We are concerned about what’s going on right now, with many people going into these forbearance plans without a clear sense of what will happen at the

end,” one expert said. “If we don’t see further action from Congress to fill this hole ... we could see another foreclosure crisis when these forbearances end.”

Before the pandemic, the foreclosure crisis that followed the housing bust in 2008 seemed firmly in the rearview.

In January, just 0.4 percent of mortgages were in some stage of foreclosure, according to the most recent data released by real estate data company CoreLogic. Meanwhile, only 3.5 percent of mortgages were at least 30 days late.

But there are troubling signs those numbers could rise. About 3.74 percent of all mortgages were in forbearance

by April 5, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That’s compared with just 0.25 percent of loans in forbearance in the first week of March.

The association expects forbearance requests to steadily increase. About 15 million homeowners could rely on for-

RENT from page re1

BY PAUL MARYNIAK GSN Executive Editor

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s the inventory of available homes continues to shrink throughout the Valley, a new national study of rental housing indicated - finding either an affordable house or apartment is getting more difficult.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University said the typical renter is becoming more well-to-do and the apartment construct-bedroom median of $1,540,” adding the town saw “rent growth of 5.2% over the past year, the fastest in the metro.”

@AmyJonesGroup Each office is independently owned and operated

...a Tradition of Trust

see MORTGAGE page re3

REAL ESTATE

GILBERT SUN NEWS | APRIL 19, 2020

MARKET from page re1

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at 3.5 percent and actually lowered their monthly payment from the previous rental prices while the landlord was able to liquidate some much-needed equity that gave their family of teachers a little padding during these uncertain times.

While we don’t know where supply or demand will end up when this is over – or even what “over” means –we have not yet seen them come anywhere close to being balanced.

In Gilbert, we have 629 listings available for sale – compared to 911 last year – and only 402 of those are actual-

ly available, meaning the rest is already under contract. And we’ve only got 1.5 months’ supply remaining, meaning that if we don’t add a single listing to the market, we’d have buyers for all those homes in just 45 days.

The average sale-to-list price is 99.49 percent – which means that most listings are selling near full price once they get to the right price for the market. Our balance between supply and demand is still nearly 3 times what we’d see in a balanced market.

The numbers are changing daily, but the perspective remains as important as

it was on Day One of the stay-at-home orders.

Had we started down this unknown path in a balanced market, we would have already seen a shift and started to feel the downward pressure on pricing but that simply wasn’t the environment.

This pandemic will shift the course of many people’s plans and for others it might not shift it at all. It might delay a shift in many people’s so that a surge of buyers hit the market when this is over.

It may create some urgency for others who didn’t feel a need to lock down their piece of the Southeast Valley right now.

Interest rates remain low and are fluctuating less. The importance of access to information and the clarity of strategy remains important with families making the median income able to afford 68 percent of what’s on the market today.

We will come out of this stronger.

If you have a hand, lend it. If you need a hand, ask for it. We cannot leave anyone behind.

bearance to get them through this crisis, or nearly a third of all single-family mortgages, predicts Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

That could result in roughly 2 million foreclosures, says Zandi. Housing advocates are urging different kinds of assistance.

Instead of forbearance, some want a program to keep mortgage payments

affordable, similar to the one the federal government created after the housing bust of more than a decade ago.

It helped to save more than a million homes from foreclosures and short sales.

The program granted things like loan modifications, which could lower monthly payments, and deferments, which tacked missed payments onto the

ends of loans, thereby extending their duration. Many government-backed loans offer similar options.

However, the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program was widely criticized for not helping nearly enough homeowners. And about a third of the borrowers in the program fell behind on their mortgage again.

Many homeowners seeking mortgage

assistance are wary of forbearance.

“If you can make the payment, make the payment now,” says Rocke Andrews, a mortgage broker at Lending Arizona in Tucson and president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers.

“Don’t take [forbearance] if you don’t absolutely need it. It all becomes due, and who knows what happens between now and then.”

MORTGAGE from page re2

Gilbert Real Estate Snapshot

Mindy Jones Nevarez, a Gilbert Realtor and owner of the Amy Jones Group at Keller Williams Integrity First, can be reached at 480-2503857, Mindy@AmyJonesGroup.com or AmyJonesGroup.com

Provided by the Amy Jones Group Your Local Real Estate Team (480) 250-3857 | www.amyjonesgroup.com • Average Days on Market: 35 days Down from 48 Days Last Month

• Active Listings: 603 Up from 460 Listings Last Month

• Monthly Sales: 429 Up from 359 Sales Last Month

• Listings Under Contract: 485 Down from 535 Listings Under Contract Last Month

• Average Sales Price: $422,946 Down from $432,831 Last Month

• Monthly Supply of Inventory: 1.5 Up from 1.2 Monthly Supply Last Month

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REAL ESTATE

GILBERT SUN NEWS | APRIL 19, 2020

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Melanie Nemetz

480.221.3034 • www.fosteringre.com Each office is independently owned and operated

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Welcome to Cooley Station in Gilbert! This two story 3 bedroom plus downstairs den, 2.5 bathroom Capital Pacific Home is situated in the treelined neighborhood of Cooley Station within walking distance to the community pool, playground, and park. Completely remodeled from top to bottom with more than $20K in upgrades, this 1860sf floorplan has new carpet, interior and exterior paint, high-efficiency LED light fixtures, appliances, and low maintenance landscaping in the backyard. Walk up your storybook entry and into your formal living & dining space with natural light streaming through the windows & a neutral color palette for a soothing experience. This seamless floorplan flows into the family room with breakfast bar seating at the kitchen entry, new stainless-steel appliances & an extended pantry with under stair storage. The downstairs den is easily converted into a fourth bedroom with an adjacent half bath and access to the two-car garage with 240V power for an electric car. Upstairs you’ll find an oversized master retreat with spacious master bedroom, large ensuite bath with bathtub shower combo, private toilet room and large walk-in closet. Down the hall you’ll find two additional guest bedrooms, the convenience of an upstairs laundry, and a full guest bathroom with modern fixtures and a bathtub/shower combo. Outside you’ll find a covered patio with easy maintenance landscaping in the backyard with new rock, desert friendly plants, and two storage areas for all of your bikes and weekend toys. Just steps to the community pool, playground, and park - this home features the best of both worlds being convenient to shopping, dining, and entertainment with the feeling of being tucked away in a secret lush neighborhood.

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3852 E Yeager Dr, Gilbert, AZ 85295

(480) 250-3857 www.AmyJonesGroup.com