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Proposed Fiesta Mall area condos in Mesa scaled back

 Combined with a separate tentative makeover of Fiesta Mall, the Fiesta “Towers” will be a big improvement for an area that has been drifting. The 10- to 19-story buildings shrink to three five- and six-story buildings in the latest proposal filed Tuesday. The number of condominium units also drops to 438 from the range of 540 to 850 envisioned in November 2005.

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Tour 12 Scottsdale million-dollar homes for $15

 This sounds like fun. Next month, 12 luxury homes will be on display in Scottsdale, six of them in Desert Mountain’s Saguaro Forest community. Hold it! I tour dozens of homes a week. I need to get a life. (But it still sounds like fun… I mean educational, to me.) What: Phoenix Luxury Home Tour When: April 13-15, 20-22, 27-29. Friday-Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tickets: $15 advance purchase at A.J. Fine Foods, or call,(866) 895-9812 or visit http://www.phoenixluxuryhometour.com. You can also purchase tickets at participating model homes for $20, or $5 for a single site. For information: Visit http://www.phoenixluxuryhometour.com for information on each home and a map of the tour.

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It turns out Americans are great savers, just not in banks

 I love to see the conventional wisdom smashed. Who knew they didn’t consider 401(k) savings plans to be savings? Counting home ownership as well as capital gains and 401(k) retirement plans, two other vehicles that are also not part of the savings calculations, Americans have a 23 percent savings rate, Fisher contends. ” Americans are really the world’s biggest and most productive savers,” he says. Don’t expect this “good news” to get much press so you should be able to amaze people at parties for years with this tidbit.

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Apartment rents up across U.S.

 Expect to see an upward trend for years to come. Of the 79 markets that Reis tracks, only Colorado Springs, Colo., showed a decline in rents, down 0.1 percent. Rents rose the most in Miami, Seattle, and San Jose, Calif., all up 1.6 percent in the first quarter.

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LA apartment rents forecast to rise 3 to 5 percent in 2007

 The Southern California apartment market will continue to move forward at a healthy pace this year with occupancy rates averaging 96 percent across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and rents rising an average of three to five percent 96% occupancy rates according to the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate. Wow!

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Paradise Valley construction ticks off some folks

 The Montelucia in Paradise Valley, Arizona sure doesn’t look luxurious in it’s current stage of construction. The InterContinental Montelucia Resort and Spa and the Villas at Montelucia are taking shape, and for some the shape is huge. People are most critical of the project’s 34 resort villas, which hug one of the town’s busiest intersections. A controversy on Montelucia might have an impact on what the Paradise Valley Town Council will approve for these 2 projects. • Construction of the 120-acre Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley, nestled inside Indian Bend Road, Lincoln Drive, Mockingbird Lane and Scottsdale Road. • The redo of the 68-acre former Marriott’s Mountain Shadows, 5641 E. Lincoln Drive.

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California economic forecast

 The UCLA Anderson Forecast which is known for being negative had this to say in it’s latest quarterly report on the California economy. While there’s some wiggle room on how weak real estate will be and how much other sectors will offset this weakness, there is still no other sector that looks poised to combine with real estate to generate enough job loss to cause a recession.” I guess that would be a backhanded complement.

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‘It’s the bank’s fault for lending me money’

 This is hilarious! The “Anyone stupid enough to lend me money deserves to lose it” argument. ” I was shocked they were even going to do it. If I couldn’t make my payment at $800 a month, what made them think I could afford $1,300 a month?” But it gets better. ” Who would’ve thought the market did what it did with houses” I think there were a few people out there who thought things might slow down. But it gets worse. Bates is resigned that the house his father co-signed for him will soon sit vacant like so many new investment dwellings. Great! He’s also ruining his father’s credit.…

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