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Taliesin West renovation planned

 Via Phoenix Business Journal. Malone said the project will take at least one year, and has a budget of $150,000. Of that total, $100,000 came from an anonymous grant specifically for the master plan. And this is interesting, “… he does know the roof leaks because he’s found that to be the case with most Wright buildings.” The tours are a little pricey but I enjoy touring Taliesin West.

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Metro Phoenix – Home prices and price increases in 2013

 This is a great table from The Cromford Report. It doesn’t, however, show the latest price trends like my very unscientific post on hot Phoenix real estate markets. To get updates of this chart, you’ll need to subscribe to The Cromford Reports or call me. Single Family Homes Note from The Cromford Report, “Annual averages are based on a relatively large number of sales. Therefore they are not as subject to rapid change as monthly averages. The downside is that they do not necessarily represent the current market very accurately, since they include sales from up to a year ago. Pricing may have moved a great deal since then.”

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Most popular home improvement projects

 Top Home Remodeling Projects No surprise here. The most popular home improvement projects according to a Harvard study are kitchen and bathroom remodels. U.S. Home Improvement Spending Home improvement spending saw a big bump in the second half of 2013 and is expected to remain strong at least through the first half of 2014.

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Best home improvement projects when selling in Phoenix AZ

 How much of the cost of a remodeling project will you recoup when you sell? There are lots of problems with this list from the “2014 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report,” in Remodeling magazine. Nevertheless, it’s clear that you will NOT recoup the full cost of a major remodeling project. If you’re going to do a major project, do it years before you plan sell so you can personally enjoy the improvements. You will recoup some of the cost of the project when you sell, which is great, but rarely the entire cost. If you’re thinking or selling your home soon you should absolutely stay away from expensive remodeling projects.…

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Home prices reach new highs in 10 of 50 U.S. metro areas in 2013

 In 10 of 50 metro areas, The Wall Street Journal found that home prices in 2013 reached peaks that were at or above the previous peaks set from 2005 to 2007. … at least in some parts of the country, primarily in places that didn’t have much of a boom or bust to begin with. Think of western Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma, a lot of the Great Plains. And then you also have places that did have a mild downturn but have just gone off to the races the last few years; Washington D.C., parts of the Bay area. I mean Palo Alto is up 40% since their 2007 peak. http://live.wsj.com/public/page/embed-52C998ED_800D_4F2E_87B1_8786C41C3D2F.html…

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Inventory of homes for sale up over 70% in some metro Phoenix cities

 Instead of comparing the “hot and not” real estate markets in metro Phoenix in the second half of 2013, let’s look at what I think will be the big story for 2014, the increase in the number of homes for sale. The list below was created by The Cromford Report. Comparing the days of inventory now (February 2) with 12 months ago shows us which major cities have seen the greatest growth in single family supply versus demand. Growth in Days of Inventory by Major City in Metro Phoenix [table width=”600″ colwidth=”175|170|45|210″ colalign=”left|right|left”] ,,, ,Feb14 vs Feb13,, 1) Peoria,109 vs 61,,Up 79% 2) Glendale,91 vs 51,,Up 78% 3) Gilbert,101 vs…

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