ARIZONA has become a bargain shop for vacation properties and that's piqued the interest of some of the biggest bargain-hunters of all -- Winnipeggers, according to an ex-city cop who sells real estate in the southwestern U.S. state.
Diane Olson said she's been averaging a call each working day over the last month from Winnipeggers looking to buy vacation homes in the Phoenix area as Arizona homebuilders, homeowners and financial institutions scramble to unload properties in the wake of the U.S subprime mortgage and housing crisis.
Olson, who was a Winnipeg police officer from 1988 until 1999, said one local couple had their offer on a four-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot home accepted and are waiting for the legal work to be completed. She wouldn't say how much the couple paid until the deal is finalized.
"But if everything happens as it should, it's a really good deal."
To illustrate the kind of deals that are available, Olson cited the case of a newer bungalow in the nearby city of Maricopa that sold for $242,927 in April 2006 is now listed for $134,900. And a two-storey home in the Phoenix suburb of Ahwatukee that sold for $450,000 in May, 2006 was recently listed for $254,900.
She and business partner Steve Lauritano, who are hosting a real estate seminar today in Winnipeg, said those kinds of bargain-basement prices and the high value of the Canadian dollar -- it closed Wednesday at US$97.69 -- make this an ideal time for Manitobans to buy a vacation home in Arizona.
"The real estate market is really in turmoil down here," Lauritano said. "Builders... are getting rid of some of these homes for basically their cost or even below their cost."
Olson said that before the subprime mortgage crisis hit, she wasn't getting any inquiries from people in her hometown. Now she and Lauritano, who owns Arizona Pro Realty, Inc. in Phoenix, have more than 50 people registered for today's seminar. And that's without any advance marketing.
Arizona District Multiple Listing Service CEO Bob Bemis and another Phoenix-area realtor confirmed there are bargains to be found in the Arizona market right now.
"They (Olson and Lauritano) are not blowing smoke at all," Bemis said in an interview.
He said not all of the deals are as good as the ones cited by Olson and Lauritano. He said the average selling price in Phoenix has dropped from about $334,000 in December 2006 to $313,000 this past December. The median price -- the midway-point between the highest and lowest selling prices -- dropped from $250,000 to $229,000.
However, Jonathan Dalton, a real estate agent with RE/MAX Desert Showcase, said the price reductions vary from one part of the region to another. Although city-wide it's probably 10 to 15 per cent in the past year, in some bedroom communities it's 40 per cent or more because of the glut of properties on the market.
Dalton said he's also getting calls from Canadian bargain-hunters, but they're mostly retirees from Alberta. Olson said some of her Winnipeg clients are also retirees, but others are people in their 40s and 50s and a few are their 20s.
While some are looking for homes in the $125,000 to $150,000 range, she has one couple viewing properties priced at between $800,000 and $1 million.
She said most want to come to Arizona for the sunshine -- an average of 330 days per year -- and the golfing -- about 180 courses in the Phoenix area alone and about 300 in the state.
Walter Boni, a Winnipeg real estate agent who recently bought a condominium in Las Vegas, Nev., said price isn't the only thing Winnipeg buyers should keep in mind when buying a U.S. property. They also need to consider things like taxation issues.
He said Florida imposes high estate taxes on foreign-owned properties, while Nevada has none.
John Marion, a Realtor with RE/MAX Professionals in Winnipeg, said he's talked to a couple of RE/MAX agents in the United States on behalf of Winnipeg clients. He said they're mainly people who have downsized here and are using the profit from the sale of their larger homes as a downpayment on a U.S. vacation home.
murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
WHAT? Free information seminar on real estate investment opportunities in Arizona.
WHEN? Today, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
WHERE? Canad Inns Polo Park, 1405 St. Matthews Ave.
WHO? Hosted by Diane Olson and Stephen Lauritano, of Arizona Pro Realty, Inc.
WHY? Arizona properties are selling at below market prices as a glut of homes floods onto the market because of the subprime mortgage and housing crisis in the United States.
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