Flagstaff Blog - Real Estate and All Things Flagstaff: March 2008

Louie isn't there anymore! On Thursday, I did my usual "what's up in Flagstaff this weekend" post and included an archive picture of Louie the Lumberjack (Mascot of Northern Arizona University) in front of the Walkup Skydome.  Well, I went to the Flagstaff Home and Garden Show on Friday and Louie had moved! 

Apparently, students had vandalized Louie one too many times in his outdoor position on campus, so he has been moved inside the Skydome. This weekend, he towered over all the displays at one end of the Home and Garden Show. He apparently keeps a close eye on the court during all home basketball games, but I haven't heard that it has helped the players much. If I were from an opposing school, I'd be intimidated by that ax!

Right on the Continental Country Club in Flagstaff, AZ. For details, visit Country Club Townhome

Over 1000 exhibitors will inspire home ideas in Flagstaff for the next three days as the Home and Garden Show occupies the Northern Arizona University Skydome.

As visitors enter the Home Show, they will be greeted by NAU's mascot, Louie the Lumberjack, pictured here in front of the Walkup Skydome. Louie may not be very welcoming or homey, but, hey, it's a college campus!

Click here to print an internet coupon for $2 off at the Flagstaff Home and Garden Show.

I'll be at the Home Show tomorrow a.m. working the booth of the Coconino County Democrats. If you're in Flagstaff at the Home Show, look for me in the booth between 10 a.m. and noon.  Then back to work in the afternoon with yet another listing appointment!  

For details on more fun things to do in Flagstaff this weekend, visit my other blog. Some of my clients who purchased a great retirement home in Flagstaff a few years ago are presenting at the Museum of Northern Arizona on Saturday afternoon. They are authors of a book about Havasuapai culture, entitled I Am The Grand Canyon. Also in Flagstaff this weekend, you'll find a youth poetry festival and a sustainable living lecture series. Not to mention, it's Spring in the mountains!

We always appreciate your referrals -- Flagstaff was mentioned this week as a hot retirement spot on AOL. Send them our way!

Team Heitland at RE/MAX Peak Properties.

It's been a beautiful Spring week in Flagstaff. At 7000 feet, temperatures have been in the fifties and even thelow sixties at mid-day.  Winter coats are, of course, still required when the sun falls and there is still plenty of snow gracing the mountains above town. Flagstaff is a beautiful place to live!  

It's also been quiet here in Flagstaff this week, with much of this college town out of town for Spring Break. But the school breaks have freed up time for home buyers also and we're seeing some more activity from first-time and move-up buyers.

What we are not seeing is the traditional Flagstaff second-home buyer, who is someone from the Phoenix area looking for a place to get away from the heat and crowds in the Maricopa valley.

This will be the second year in a row that Flagstaff's home market has been without what had been, in recent decades, a deluge (if a flood can come up a mountain?) of second home buyers. As the Phoenix area grew, people from other regions realized the oppression of living in Phoenix in the summer months might overcome the advantage of warm winter months if they didn't have a mountain escape home in summer. But since the real estate boom in Phoenix busted, those would-be second homeowners have not had the equity to transfer to a second home.

Surprisingly, our market has not been hit harder. Indeed, our Flagstaff home prices have been fairly stable while Phoenix's housing prices have plummeted.

Click here for the latest Flagstaff market report,

Click here for some things to do in Flagstaff this weekend.

If you know someone who would like to buy or sell Flagstaff real estate, have them contact our active Flagstaff real estate agents.

My mother said I'm 1/8th Irish. And, indeed, before it began to turn gray, my hair had a touch of red and I am certainly prone to sunburn. In school, I sometimes wore orange on St. Patrick's Day (just to be contrary), but more often green.

When a young lawyer in Chicago, St. Patrick's Day was a day of fun for me. The parade began late morning and drinking on the streets of downtown Chicago was pointedly ignored. I'd watch the green-dyed Chicago River flow by from my 73rd floor office in the Sears Tower.

St. Patrick's Day does not seem much celebrated in Flagstaff, where I've lived through 12 such days so far. (In May, I'll celebrate my 13th year in Flagstaff!) There was a corned beef and cabbage party Saturday night following the selection of National Convention Democrat Delegates, but after a long day of that process, I had to catch up on some real estate work -- and I've never developed the taste for corned beef anyway. Instead, I thought of buying one of those lottery tickets and tempting the "luck of the Irish" -- but I didn't.

I know little of my Irish ancestors, and it seems they would not have been the ones to celebrate St. Patrick's Day anyway. But it's always been a bit of fun for me. Hope you have some fun today, too!

Photo is from Wikipedia.org, where you can find more information on St. Patrick's Day.

Talk about building up inventory. I'm taking listings like crazy. And, yes, I am turning them down, too.

If a homeowner is not realistic about the price, I won't take the listing.

There is NO MONEY in over-priced listings. Only grief. For real estate agents AND for homeowners.

I've heard agents say, "I'll take the listing and let the lack of showings tell the owner to bring the price down." That's a disservice, in my view. The property will get stale on the market and have more difficulty selling later.

I've also heard agents say, "I don't care if it sells, I'll get calls from buyers and sell them something else." Maybe, maybe not. I'm grateful I have enough right-priced listings that the calls are coming in without having wrong-priced listings.

Which is not to say that I've never had to lower a price to get a home sold. The market is often a mysterious thing, no matter how carefully we analyze it.

For Flagstaff home listings, visit http://bestflagstaffhomes.com

Check out my post about Flagstaff property tax valuations, written today on my other blog.

For more information on this home for sale in Flagstaff, click here.

For a virtual tour of this home, click here.

To search the MLS for all Flagstaff real estate, click here!

There is plenty on tap in Flagstaff this weekend, even though Spring Break begins tonight at Northern Arizona University and Flagstaff Unified School District.

 This is the time of year when Flagstaff's location and climate offer incredible variation. The forest trails in our lower elevations have dried and the temperatures are moderate, so hikers have a perfect time. In the mountains, the Arizona Snowbowl has a wonderful base for skiers and the temperatures make morning skiing still very enjoyable. Drop down forty minutes through beautiful Oak Creek Canyon and you'll find WARM temperatures for hiking or horseback riding in Sedona, AZ. The only downside is that my favorite restaurant, Horsemen Lodge, is closed for Spring Break (starting Sunday, for 8 days).

Tomorrow, the Democratic Precinct Chairs of Congressional District 1 will meet at Cline Library in Northern Arizona University to elect delegates to the National Democratic Convention in Denver in August. The delegates are bound to vote for either Clinton or Obama on the first round of voting at the convention -- bound by the results of the Presidential Preference Primary that was held February 5. But this year we may get beyond  one vote at the convention -- probably not. My bet is that it will be brokered out before. But if you want to see democracy in action at the micro level, come to Cline Library tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. (And if you are are a precinct captain -- register between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. to have your vote counted!)

For other things to do in Flagstaff this weekend, click here.

If you want to buy or sell Flagstaff real estate, contact Team Heitland at RE/MAX Peak Properties.

Have a great weekend!

I keep hearing that the smaller volume of sales will drive the amateur agents out of the real estate business. Is this happening in your market?  Not in mine. Here are the numbers of members of our Board and MLS, from February 2008 compared to February 2007, according to Friday's Northern Arizona Association of Realtors® newsletter:

I heard at the RE/MAX Convention that the number of national members has gone from 1.4 million to 1.3 million, and the speaker projected it would go to one million before starting to rise again. NAR raised its fees - I guess they need to cover costs with the reduced membership! As far as I'm concerned, it's too easy, and too inexpensive, to be a Realtor®. Half the agents who are members of our MLS didn't record a sale last year. Yet, they can go out and try to grab an unsuspecting seller or buyer and give them really poor representation. This market is great if it clears some of those part-time agents out of the industry!

Happy weekend fellow Rainers!

Ann Heitland, Team Heitland at RE/MAX Peak Properties, Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff Real Estate and Community News

It's going to be another wonderful weekend in Flagstaff, with great sunny weather.  Bring a jacket and enjoy many great Flagstaff things to do, starting tonight.  While I've been attending the 2008 RE/MAX International Convention in Las Vegas (see my posts here for the last several days), my mortgage blogging partner has been keeping our clients and other blog readers up-to-date on developments in the home loan market.

To learn about the new FHA mortgage limits, and how they apply in Coconino County, to Flagstaff real estate, read Liz Fontanini's post entitled New FHA Mortgage Limits Announced. Once the details of this shake down to mortgage investors and the word of available limits gets out, this piece of the Federal Stimulus Package should give a boost to Flagstaff homes in the $400,000 - $600,000 price range - a range that has been lagging in recent months.

Just before leaving for the RE/MAX Convention, I posted a piece about the various housing indices, which I've been meaning to do for a long time. It finally got up from the bottom of the pile because of yet another doom/gloom, little analysis, news article that appeared in the Flagstaff paper last week. You may be able to use a similar presentation format in your market. Take a look at the picture, which I created simply by inputting the Flagstaff housing data into a small Excel spreadsheet and clicking the graph option. Here's the post: What Does the Latest Housing Data Mean for Flagstaff?

Have a great weekend, Rainers. If you know anyone who wants to buy or sell Flagstaff real estate, send them our way.  Team Heitland at RE/MAX Peak Properties will be working.

Fun Things to Do in Flagstaff this weekend!

Flagstaff weather this weekend.