Michael Krotchie, Tucson Realtor® 520.261.MIKE

The other night I went out to the movies with my family and saw James Cameron's new film, "Avatar". (For those of you who haven't yet seen it I highly recommend it) It was my very first modern 3D movie experience and it was, in one word, amazing.

The last time I went to a "3D" movie was with these familiar red and blue paper glasses (familiar anyone?) and after hearing all of the hype leading up to Avatar I was curious to see how things had progressed.

After watching the movie I am convinced that the new technology developed for the movie will revolutionize the movie industry. Several times during the movie I found myself dodging arrows or missile that were being shot at me and more than once I found myself awestruck by how realistic the environment was.

The next day I found myself thinking about the movie and wondering how much more information was able to be given to the audience with 3D technology. It made a normal movie experience ten times better and it was all because of the vision and expertise of the director.

But is what we do as real estate professionals that much different?

Most consumers have a 2D idea of a real estate transaction. It is a flat image: an offer, a deal, close of escrow. And in between are a smattering of inspections, clauses, contingencies that need to be remedied, and so on and so forth.

"Why do I need an agent?", they wonder. "How is this so hard?"

And, truthfully, some consumers are right. Some can handle a real estate deal, whether because of their past experiences, friends who have knowledge, or if they have time to become knowledgeable enough on the matter to give them a sense of confidence.

But the vast majority of consumers are not real estate professionals. They have another job, another profession, and leave real estate related matters to us, the trained professionals. The real value, in my opinion, is in the past experiences and histories of the agent. We have the ability to bring situations into focus and help guide our clients through the tangled web.

We are able to anticipate, draw upon past deals, past connections and past memories in addition to our ever-evolving repetoire of news articles, pieces of legislation, zone/use changes, etcetera to protect our client. We are able to provide to our clients a 3D view of the deal.

We see potential lender issues (this home won't qualify for an FHA loan with holes in the walls), inspection issues (that drywall tape bubbling is NOT a good sign), zoning/permits issues, and wonky purchase contracts/addendums/disclosures.

We see an incoming missile a mile away and inform our clients of potential doom and catastrophe. We have to navigate through the web of agents, inspectors, escrow officers, lenders, deadlines, surprises and put out fires at a moment's notice.

At the end we take off our 3D glasses, go to closing, and celebrate with our clients.

Another job well done.

And if you haven't seen Avatar, you should go see it now! :)

November 2009 Price Statistics: Pima County
Active List Price Range	6,447 (# of Listings)	% of Market	Months supply of Inventory	DOM	1,031 (Sold # of Listings)	% of Market
$19,999 or under	0	0.00%	0.00	0	1	0.10%
$20,000 thru $29,999	8	0.12%	0.62	111	13	1.26%
$30,000 thru $39,999	30	0.47%	1.76	124	17	1.65%
$40,000 thru $49,999	70	1.09%	4.67	97	15	1.45%
$50,000 thru $59,999	88	1.36%	3.03	103	29	2.81%
$60,000 thru $69,999	105	1.63%	4.20	115	25	2.42%
$70,000 thru $79,999	159	2.47%	7.23	94	22	2.13%
$80,000 thru $89,999	191	2.96%	5.79	94	33	3.20%
$90,000 thru $99,999	174	2.70%	4.24	108	41	3.98%
$100,000 thru $119,999	341	5.29%	4.32	99	79	7.66%
$120,000 thru $139,999	487	7.55%	4.68	98	104	10.09%
$140,000 thru $159,999	526	8.16%	4.46	105	118	11.45%
$160,000 thru $179,999	458	7.10%	4.05	106	113	10.96%
$180,000 thru $199,999	419	6.50%	5.59	119	75	7.27%
$200,000 thru $249,999	821	12.73%	5.91	113	139	13.48%
$250,000 thru $299,999	595	9.23%	7.53	116	79	7.66%
$300,000 thru $349,999	356	5.52%	8.09	132	44	4.27%
$350,000 thru $399,999	285	4.42%	10.18	132	28	2.72%
$400,000 thru $449,999	167	2.59%	9.82	131	17	1.65%
$450,000 thru $499,999	198	3.07%	18.00	138	11	1.07%
$500,000 thru $549,999	126	1.95%	15.75	137	8	0.78%
$550,000 thru $599,999	142	2.20%	35.50	167	4	0.39%
$600,000 thru $649,999	76	1.18%	10.86	133	7	0.68%
$650,000 thru $699,999	85	1.32%	42.50	148	2	0.19%
$700,000 thru $749,999	59	0.92%	29.50	125	2	0.19%
$750,000 thru $799,999	65	1.01%	65.00	175	1	0.10%
$800,000 thru $849,999	36	0.56%	N/A	165	0	0.00%
$850,000 thru $899,999	50	0.78%	N/A	181	0	0.00%
$900,000 thru $949,999	17	0.26%	17.00	108	1	0.10%
$950,000 thru $999,999	37	0.57%	N/A	183	0	0.00%
$1,000,000 thru $1,249,999	60	0.93%	60.00	157	1	0.10%
$1,250,000 thru $1,499,999	77	1.19%	77.00	144	1	0.10%
$1,500,000 thru $1,749,999	33	0.51%	33.00	171	1	0.10%
$1,750,000 thru $1,999,999	29	0.45%	N/A	191	0	0.00%
$2,000,000 thru $2,249,999	11	0.17%	N/A	140	0	0.00%
$2,250,000 thru $2,499,999	20	0.31%	N/A	186	0	0.00%
$2,500,000 thru $2,749,999	9	0.14%	N/A	118	0	0.00%
$2,750,000 thru $2,999,999	12	0.19%	N/A	244	0	0.00%
$3,000,000 thru $3,249,999	1	0.02%	N/A	86	0	0.00%
$3,250,000 thru $3,499,999	7	0.11%	N/A	127	0	0.00%
$3,500,000 thru $3,749,999	1	0.02%	N/A	404	0	0.00%
$3,750,000 thru $3,999,999	7	0.11%	N/A	196	0	0.00%
$4,000,000 thru $4,249,999	0	0.00%	N/A	0	0	0.00%
$4,250,000 thru $4,499,999	0	0.00%	N/A	0	0	0.00%
$4,500,000 thru $4,749,999	2	0.03%	N/A	157	0	0.00%
$4,750,000 thru $4,999,999	1	0.02%	N/A	357	0	0.00%
$5,000,000 thru $5,999,999	4	0.06%	N/A	54	0	0.00%
$6,000,000 thru $6,999,999	1	0.02%	N/A	281	0	0.00%
$8,000,000 thru $8,999,999	1	0.02%	N/A	123	0	0.00%

Actives: The average price for the 6,447 properties is $331,419. The average Market Time is 119 days Solds: The average price for the 1,031 properties is $188,582. The average Market time was 73 days Property Type Residential Areas Extended Southwest, Central, Northeast, Extended Northwest, Extended West, Pima Northwest, Pima Far West, South, Extended Northeast, Southwest, West, Extended South, North, Northwest, Pima Southwest, Pima East, East, Southeast, Pima South Statuses Active, Active Capa, Active Contingent. Statistic from TARLS. Listings as of 11/7/2009. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

With the recent downturn of the economy Northwest Tucson has been especially hard hit. Here's a bullet summary of projects in flux:

1. The development of Saguaro Springs is in a state of flux (read more about that here)
2. Gladden Farms, a master-planned community in Marana, has ground to a halt and a planned Fry's shopping center has yet to break ground. The lender has filed a notice of trustee's sale but Marana developers are confident they can find another lender and continue development. (read more about Gladden Farms status here)
3. The Marana floodplain issue has yet to be put to rest but Marana town officials assure the community that FEMA appears to have rescinded their original decision to place most of Marana in a floodplain and instead will issue revised maps showing only part of Marana in a floodplain. (read more about Marana floodplain issue here)
4. Red Rock Village, a master-planned community being developed by Pulte homes thirty miles of NW Tucson, has also been hit by the housing crisis. Originally slated to consist of 4,000, slackened demand has been apparent. Just last week I received an email stating that a ~1200sqft floorplan had a $99,999 base price!
5. Marana Spectrum, a 1.3 million square foot "power center" planned just east of I-10 and Camino de Manana, was planned to open in 2010 to coincide with the completion of the I-10 widening effort and the development and opening of the Twin Peaks / Camino de Manana I-10 interchange (which doesn't currently exist). I saw construction start on the new freeway exit last month and it appears to be continuing, but I haven't seen much work done yet on the Marana Spectrum site.

I hope these projects can continue and help bust us out of our funk. The Twin Peaks interchange will be especially helpful to Dove Mountain residents who have to trek all the way over to I-10 for freeway access.

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Michael Krotchie - Realtor®
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, NRT LLC
6970 N. Oracle Road, Suite 100 Tucson, AZ 85704
520.404.4996 -- Mobile
520.544.4545 -- Office
520.844.6699 -- Fax

http://www.michaelkrotchie.com