February Newsletter,

Hello All!  As I write this it is Valentine’s Day morning and it must be getting close to baseball season because it is rainy.  Instead of talking about Valentine’s Day I thought I would talk about baseball for a minute (those of you who know me now understand why my wife gives me those looks).  Spring training is getting close now and soon we will have droves of folks from the Midwest and other parts of the country come to Arizona to check out their favorite ball team.  We just had the Phoenix Open “er”, FBR Open, 3 football bowl games, The Barrett/Jackson Auto Show and the Super Bowl will be here next year.  I’m bringing this up because Arizona is now the #1 state in population growth as we have just passed up Nevada.  We have all talked about the market lately and are aware that 2006 was a year of correction and we may see some of the same in 2007 as all predictors showing a leveling off of the market this year.  No matter the market people are still coming here for all sorts of reasons and because of that high demand for housing will be important to all of us.  It’s nice to know that we live in a place where there will be people needing housing whether it be home ownership or for rentals.  Even with all of these people moving here we still have very low unemployment, fantastic weather, and so much to do that our state will continue to grow and grow.

Next time you go to a ball game or any other event and see the tourists coming to our state, ask yourself, how long until they decide to pack up and move out west and then be reminded of how lucky we are to live in this great state.  And one more thing, you might want to be different than me and not think about baseball on Valentine’s Day!

Have a wonderful month and please check out AltaMesa85205.com which is my new community website.  You can find out what’s happening on the community calendar, place FREE classified ads, find golf courses, etc.  This is not a real estate website but rather a community website set up and designed for people to use for their own benefit.

Play Ball!

Bob Hershey

Red Brick Realty

480-980-7653

January 2007 

Happy New Year! Hope everyone is looking forward to a rewarding and prosperous 2007!

This is my first annual “State of Real Estate” address. I know I’m not the president but I will have to do. Everyone is aware that the market has been going through a correction phase for the past year or so. Just when it started is still up for debate but the correction was needed just as any market correction is. The pessimists among us believe that the market is in a crash and is a scary place to be which is undeniably false! This correction has gone quite well for several reasons: A. interest rates have stopped being raised (which always has as effect on the market) B. some areas have not seen a decline (usually very well located areas) and the areas that have seen the decline were in the most need for one. C. even though home sales are down from the last couple of years they are still not at all bad especially for a correction and the last couple of years had been record high years for sales anyway.

Now for some good news (which we haven’t heard from the media much at all). The Arizona Republic reported that the inventory of homes in the Phoenix/metro area has declined by 9% in the last quarter and also that home sales have increased by 8% over the same period last year. Combine this news with the fact that Arizona is the #1 growth state in the country and you see that this correction is on it’s last legs.

My prediction is that 2007 will be a transition year and the market will again start seeing solid gains. Smart investors are now looking at this market as a place to invest long term (not so much the fix and flips) which is a good sign for all of us. Buyers should be less “scared” to pull the trigger on a purchase of a home with our low interest rates and great terms that buyers are getting now.

Whenever people ask me if it’s a good time to buy I tell them 2 things: First, is that I have personally bought a new home and second would they rather buy a stock at it’s height or when it’s been knocked around a little?

Here’s to everyone having the best 2007 possible.

Good Wishes!

Robert Hershey

Red Brick Realty