But, even so we can expect another 30 +

Tucson Real Estate July 2010 Snapshot is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Current Listings in Hill Farm

Hill Farm Subdivision Tucson is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

The Lakes at Castle Rock is a unique community.  Tucson doesn’t have very many communities where there is water or a lake.  There are 14 lakes at the Lakes at Castle Rock.

There is something for almost everyone except the water skiers.  No power boats on these lakes.

If you want to see what is available here is the link to Castle Rock Available Listings.

The Lakes at Castle Rock is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Tucson MLS May 2010 – June 2010

First, the data for the May statistics above comes directly from the Tucson MLS system. I pulled it just now along with the June data.

The Average Sale Price increased in June while the Median Sale Price remained the same. The middle of the market isn’t changing much. Even today for July it is just a little higher at $151,500. But that will change before the month closes.

Pending Sales was one of those good surprises. All the rage in the media is that the “Tax Credits” were driving the real estate market both nationally and in Tucson. Those credits expired on April 30, 2010. There was a significant drop in Pending contracts from April to May. But seeing more than 1000 pending contracts in June coming into July was a surprise; a pleasant one for a change.

Active Listings went up slightly in June. I’ll leak a little stat here from tomorrow’s post on Absorption rates. The inventory increased but the absorption rate for June turned out to be 5.85 months of inventory.

The Tucson Real Estate market is doing better than many places in Arizona. It isn’t anything to get excited about (Oh, really). Investors and those with cash are loving this market. You could stamp “Bargain” all over it. Cash is king in this market and there are quite a few transactions each month recorded as cash.

For sellers, it is a mixed bag. It really depends on when you bought and why you are selling.

For buyers, if you need to finance a big chunk of the purchase price, you will find credit tight.

It is a challenging time.

Ah, yes, and I forgot to post the link to the entire report here: Tucson MLS June 2010 Statistics

Tucson MLS Statistics June 2010 is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Come and Join the Fun

On Saturday evening July 10 the third 2nd Saturdays Downtown event will take place.

Back in April the First Second Saturdays Downtown was held.  It was a huge success.

Here is the headline for this Saturday night:

Join Us July 10, 2010 for more
Great Music
Street Performances
Arts and Crafts Vendors
Downtown Business Specials
Outdoor Screening of Rebel Without A Cause

The website for 2nd Saturdays Downtown changes every month.  The Event info will show the next event coming up.

A good place to check out past events is “Past Events“  Here the details of each past event are kept in a blog post for that event.

On Facebook ?

If you want to see updates on the upcoming events all you have to do is “Like”  the 2nd Saturdays Downtown page.

2nd Saturdays Downtown Tucson is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

The Usual Sound of Rain in Tucson

The “official” start of Monsoon is today. No longer are we left to a calculation based on Dew Point. Instead the government has taken the joy and mystery out of the Tucson Monsoon Season.

I’m kidding of course (not). The “real” monsoon probably won’t arrive till sometime in or after the first week in July.

Tucson Sound of Rain

If you want to hear the sound of rain in Tucson, most of the time, you have to find one of these rain pools placed around town.

June 15th 2010 the Ides of June is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Tired in Tucson but not Retired

There is a new blog in Tucson.  You are thinking “Oh, good, just what we need, another blog.  What the heck is a blog?”

The description of the site is “Tucson tired, not Retired, just tired.”

Tucson Tired in it’s authors own words:

“I started this journey toward being tired in Tucson almost 3 score ago. (that’s 60 years for those that don’t know what a score is).  Now the journey has brought me to Tucson.  Actually, it brought me here a decade ago.

I’m hearing all the time that 60 is the new 40.  I think some 20 year old came up with it as an advertising slogan to sell “Boomers” something.

It is my intent to share the journey together with those willing to take the time to read and reflect.  Maybe our paths have already crossed.  Maybe they have yet to meet.  Maybe we will share a story together here.”

I know the author pretty well and I like his writing style. It is good to be able to have a place where you can read a story or an observation that makes the day a better day.

A place that adds to our lives rather than takes from them.  A place to put a smile on our face and a good thought to dwell on through the day.

Tucson Tired is that kind of place.

Tucson Tired – Not Retired Just Tired is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

This is usually a straight forward look at the numbers in the report.  But not this month, at least not right now.

Why?  Because I can’t believe the numbers.  Not that they are bad or good, that’s not the unbelievable part.  They simply don’t add up.  I pull the data from the MLS almost daily.  Checking on Average and Median sale price.  The Total Units sold and the number of REO and short sales which are a part of the total units sold.

When the report comes out the numbers are the same numbers I get out of the MLS system.  But not this month.

The Tucson MLS stats report is supposed to be based on 13 areas in Tucson.  (It used to contain all areas in the MLS).  Even these are not a true reflection of the Tucson Real Estate market.  But it is better than it used to be.  There really should only be 9 areas in the Tucson report.  A supplemental report should be provided each month to cover the areas outside of Tucson.  But I can understand why there isn’t.  It is a lot of work to put together this kind of report and the number of people interested in the data has to be a consideration in the equation of “Do we pull this report data or not?”

But back to the May report.  The number of Total closed units is reported to be 1270 for May.  But when I pull the data for the 13 areas supposedly in the report there are only 1240 units sold.  When the report data was pulled there were even fewer.  The Average sale price and Median sale price also are not where near the number the data provides.  Reported Average sale price is $194,826.  The data in the system shows it to be $186,098.  That is a big discrepancy.

Therefore, I can’t believe any of the numbers in this months report.  I’ve included the link to the report in the sidebar the same as I do every month.

I’ve also sent an email to TAR questioning the data in the report.  I haven’t heard back from them yet.

I don’t know how many readers pull this report each month, but I decided to write this post to state my hesitance to use the report for the May statistics report on closed transactions.

If there is a change to the report I’ll provide the typical analysis of the data.  But if not.  For the first time in a lot of years there won’t be a statistics summary report here.

I’ll keep you posted.

Tucson MLS Statistic Report for May 2010 is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Google recently added a “New” feature for the homepage.  You can pick your own background.  They have a lot of available images or you can pick a pic from your own computer.

My Google Background

I like this one.  But there are so many I’ll probably try a different one every few days.  But for now.  I like flowers.

Now a Word about the Weather

Anyone in Tucson this weeks knows it is hot.  Not just hot, Tucson HOT!  Then kind of hot we brag about only because we wish we weren’t in it.

Like diving into the lake and finding it so cold we can barely breath but as we surface we say to anyone else on the pier, “Come on in, the water’s fine”.

Google Backgounds On Home Page is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Here is the summary snapshot.

The Short Story

May of 2009 recorded 1029 closed residential transactions. The actual count for May 2010 as I write is 1200 and I”m sure it will be at least 1229 by the end of June if history is any indicator.  Like the April figures reported at 1227 and the count is at 1256 and counting.

Short Sales and REO

The percentage of the total for May was 41%.  In April it was 37%.  It might seem a high percentage of the total.  That’s because it is.  But this isn’t a bad thing.  Getting these vacant homes of the market and occupied is healthy for Tucson.

Average and Median Sale Price Dripped

I’m using dipped because yesterday the unemployment rate dipped below the 10%  I heard another report where it “slipped”.

When reporting real estate it Falls, Plunges, etc.  So if you want a high number to appear worse than it is it will dip or slip.  But if you want a low number to appear worse than it is it has to fall or plunge.  (I say that for future would be reports)

It seems the entire economy took a breather in May.  The stock market  PLUNGED and a lot of people tightened up the pocket book.

Any month in Tucson when there are over 1000 closed residential transactions it is a pretty good month.

June is Family Move Month

The snow birds have long flown from Tucson shores (we have beach just no water).  Once school is out and families transferring to Tucson make June the “Let’s get a new nest for the kids before school starts” month.

I’ll keep you posted on how the day to day flow of the market is going.  Right now, there is some funny numbers coming out of Flexmls Tucson reports so I won’t quote any of the things there.  Thanks to Kelley Koehler for bringing the data anomalies  to my attention this morning.

Tucson Real Estate Snapshot May 2010 is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.