The 9th Annual Modern Phoenix home tour is coming up soon, and features Phoenix's fabulous West Side neighborhoods such as Starlite Vista, SunView Estates, North Central Avenue and the Midtown Garden Apartment district. This self-guided tour will take visitors through vintage modern homes by Ralph Haver, Charles Polacek and Robert Starkovich as well as contemporary remodels by The Ranch Mine, Mod Architecture + Planning, JNL Homes, JoBuilt Construction and Modern Design Environments LLC. Contractors, homeowners and architects will hang out on site to interact in a casual and fun setting. Modern Phoenix Week is so much more than a tour, … [Read more...]

Wanting to send a big thank you to the Desert Living Today team for giving me the opportunity to become a contributing guest blogger for their site.  Desert Living Today is a locally run online magazine and I know you're thinking... great, not another blog to follow...as reading multiple news, gossip and fashion sites, countless blogs, and numerous newsfeeds takes a lot of time. That’s what they're here for!  They are an "up to the minute tip-sheet covers anything and everything that is cool, stylish and newsworthy with features that emphasize design, architecture, fashion and art."  They read it all so you don’t have to.   They … [Read more...]

As some around the world were celebrating Valentine's Day, in Arizona we were commemorating our state's 100th anniversary of becoming a state.  Arizona is relatively young compared to the rest of the U.S., but there's still a good deal of history that can be celebrated making it interesting to look back on how thing's have changed.   In honor of Arizona turning the ripe old age of 100, here's a look at some beautiful homes for sale on the market either representative of their era or unique in style, with the age in which they were built spanning a full 100 years and 2 homes showcasing each decade. All data current as of February 20, 2012 … [Read more...]

Single-Family Housing Starts fell for the second consecutive month, dropping to a seasonally-adjusted, annualized 417,000 units in August 2011. A “Housing Start” is defined as a home on which ground has broken. We shouldn’t put too much faith in the findings, however. Although housing starts were lower last month, as noted by the Census Bureau, the margin of error in the August Housing Starts report exceeded the actual result. From the official report: August’s Published Results : -1.4% from July August’s Margin of Error : ±10.3% from July Therefore, August’s Housing Starts may have actually increased by up to … [Read more...]

Those of us in Arizona can still recall those days when real estate prices were booming back in 2005/2006, and it seemed like prices would never go down.  The out of control and unsustainable rise in home values and subsequent bust, was a factor of many things...to include poor lending practices by banks, over speculation from investors, prices outpacing the increases in general population's salaries/earnings, and buyers overleveraging themselves with too much debt. Investors were buying multiple properties with little to no money, down financing themselves into debt oblivion.   They were more concerned with making quick and easy … [Read more...]

“The market is great!  Interest rates are still low!  It’s a buyer’s market!”  We’ve all seen plenty of hype about how NOW is the best time to buy a home.  A lot of that hype is actually valid advice if you’re wondering when to buy, but it won’t do you a bit of good if you’re still wondering whether you should buy a home at all. To help you make the choice that really works for you in the long run, here are some good reasons to buy a home—in any economy. Equity The days of flipping houses for magic money are gone.  If you buy a home today, don’t expect to get your money back any time soon unless you’re … [Read more...]