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Do we qualify for $500K home-sale tax break?

 Only one spouse’s name appears on title Bob Bruss solves it all… again. – HOW TO CLEAR TITLE OF DECEASED CO-OWNER’S NAME (Bob’s answer here isn’t quite right for Arizona. You would also avoid probate if title were held as community property with right of survivorship or if there were a beneficiary deed.) – WHEN SELLING A PROPERTY FOR ITS PURCHASE PRICE IS TAXABLE

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45 to be the new 55 at Sun City Grand, Arizona

 I just got a call on this on Monday. Many people who are under 55 want to move into an adult community. They are still working for sure but they want to live in a community where they can transition into retirement without moving. The only adult community that I knew of that had a minimum age of 45 was Sun Lakes in Chandler. And sure enough, just driving around Sun Lakes, it seems younger than the other adult communities. The article makes it sound as if Westbrook Village (just east of Sun City but newer and with great freeway access) in Peoria recently changed its minimum age to 45.…

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U.S. has a “Goldilocks” economy

 Not too hot and not too cold, BusinessWeek.com covers the state of U.S. growth and inflation. A strong economy suggests, of couse, that Arizona will be able to work it’s way through the current large overhang of homes for sale before the next recession. Resale home inventory could work its way back into the high end of normal this year. New homes are probably looking at 2008, that is, if Arizona homebuilders wake up and cut production more deeply than they have so far.

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Sam Zell on commercial real estate

 The world is awash in an unprecedented amount of capital looking for places to invest, fueling demand and sky-high prices for commercial real estate. Sam Zell is a billionaire real estate investor. ” This is just an extraordinary wave of liquidity, not just in the domestic U.S., but on a worldwide basis,” Zell said. ” I think the excess in liquidity will exist for six to eight years, until growth catches up.” Wow, I thought CAP rates were as low as they could go. Zell disagrees. ” It is as likely that cap rates will be slightly lower a year from now as it is that cap rates will be…

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Lease-Option Sale Beats No Sale at All

 Actually, either a lease-purchase agreement or a lease-purchase option agreement can work well for both parties. Bob Bruss is constantly hammering on that idea. A lease-option is similar to a new-car lease, in that the renter has the choice of buying the property or not by the end of the lease term. Unlike a lease-purchase, which requires the tenant to buy the property within a year or two, a lease-option doesn’t force the tenant to buy Beware of Confusion A lease-purchase agreement is very different from a lease-purchase OPTION agreement. Usually in residential real estate you see lease-purchase OPTION agreements but most people just call them lease-purchase agreements so be…

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Appealing an Assessment Can Be Worth It

 I met one homeowner in Cave Creek who successfully appealed his Maricopa county property tax assessment. He would NEVER do it again. He said it was a big hassle and he didn’t realize the revised assessment was good for one year only. The next year the property tax assessment was back where it started. Property taxes aren’t very high in Arizona anyway so it wasn’t worthwhile. Arizona property taxes are laughably cheap compared to the Northeast and California. Well anyway, when I tell a client from the Northeast what the annual property taxes would be on an Arizona home they sometimes laugh.

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One Laundry Room Isn’t Enough Anymore

 I’ve occasionally seen a stacked washer and dryer set in the master bedroom “closet” in multi-million dollar homes in Paradise Valley and Scottsdale. It seems very convienient. Very luxurious. Of course there is a real laundry room somewhere and it likely has a set of those washers and dryers that look like they were invented by NASA. If you’re looking for a home with 2 laundries or if one laundry would be plenty good for you, I would be happy to help you with that.

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Subprime loan default highest in decade

 The default rate on subprime loans that have been packaged into bonds to be sold to investors rose to 10.09 percent in November, up from 6.62 percent a year earlier. It’s the highest default rate in a decade, exceeding the 10.05 percent level reached in November 2001 at the end of the last U.S. economic recession, the report says.

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FBR Open

 Here’s a really nice article on the atmosphere of the FBR Open at the Tournament Players Club in Scottsdale. Here’s a selection of quotes. Many women came dressed in lowcut tops or designer dresses, wearing platform shoes or stiletto heels. A few guys stood near the walkway, sipping beer and making catcalls as the women passed. ” It’s crazy,” he said. ” This is not a golf tournament, it’s a party.” ” Its kind of like spring break for adults.” Scottsdale residents Dave Leonard and his wife quietly observed the golfer’s putts on the low-key fifth hole. ” We just came for the golf,” Leonard said. ” Our partying days…

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