Phoenix High Rise and Loft Condo Expert, Will Daly at www.WeKnowUrban.com

Hire We Know Urban Realty and rent your high rise, loft, or urban condo fast.

Put the power of the WeKnowUrban.com website to work for you. With 5,000 visitors every week and one hundred twenty rental inquiries every month we are THE agents to rent out your urban property right away.

In 2009 alone we will help over one hundred landloards and tenants with their high rise and urban property rental needs. So far this year we have helped over 82 people buy, rent, sell or rent out their urban properties. No other real estate company in the Vally works with as many urban property owners or urban enthusiast as We Know Urban Realty.

Every week, every month, that your urban condo sits empty costs you big. Stop the bleeding now and contact We Know Urban Realty today. You'll be glad you did.

For years residents at Summit at Copper Square have had to turn a deaf ear to train horns blowing night and day just to the south of the high rise. Even though the street intersecting the tracks is very lightly used, Federal regulations required that the train conductors blow their horns as they approached the area. Some of the conductors were cool about it and only gave the horn a short tap during the wee hours of the night while other conductors really blasted it.

David Wallach, the developer of Summit at Copper Square, has been pursuing a exception to the horn regulations so that the intersection would be treated as a "quiet zone" by the conductors. It appears that his tenacity is finally paying off. Below is a copy of an email that Wallach shared with me written by the man who has been helping him wth this issue:

"The 21 day notification letter was mailed on September 15th. From what Chris Becker has told us in the past it is often 2-3 weeks after the 21 days have lapsed that the horns actually go silent so I would not promise residents that it will be quiet on October 6th. There are also 2 minor sign issues which hopefully does not delay things with UP. We removed two signs from the drawings because of property owner concerns. UP has been very challenging to work with and I am crossing my fingers that they do not balk at the change. Jen can you send this out to the tenants please.

Dan Klocke
Director of Planning and Economic Development
Downtown Phoenix Partnership
101 North 1st Avenue, 14th Floor
Phoenix, AZ 85003″

I want to buy now but I'm afraid that prices may go down further and I don't want to miss a better deal later. What should I do?

Answer: You're not the only one. Many prospective buyers are "sitting on the fence" and not buying now for this very reason. But, more and more people are pulling the trigger. Here's why.

• The United States housing market just wrapped up its best season in three years and prices are up 3.6% since April.
• Talk of a new "wave" of inventory about to hit the market may be exaggerated. We believe that the vast number of homes that are expected to come to the market as foreclosures are already on the market as short sales. This means that the majority of these homes are already counted and will not contribute to a flood of new inventory. "Authentic new "supply" (housing starts) currently hitting the market is actually quite low. In fact, it hasn't been this low since at least 1959 (and probably a lot longer, but we don't have data prior to then). This year, builders will begin construction on somewhere around 620,000 units, a number that's about 32% below the old record low of 906,000 set-you guessed it-last year" (Home Prices: Sustainable Bottom or Dead Cat Bounce? By: Morningstar Monday, October 12, 2009 7:38 PM).
• Most of the urban condos built early in the boom already "busted" meaning they sold as short sales or foreclosures. In many of these buildings we are seeing price stabilization and/or price gains.
• In some urban condo communities sales prices are low enough for investors to buy and rent the property out and net a positive cash flow. We have seen an absolute flurry of buyers in some of these recovering buildings. Competition is hot for the right condo in the right community.
• We expect interest rates to go up and soon for two reasons. First, it is very likely that the US will experience high inflation in the not too distant future. Interest rates go up during times of inflation. Secondly, interest rates are currently artificially low due to US government influence. Investors (other than the US government) are not buying mortgage backed securities because the rate doesn't support the risk. In other words would you yourself loan money today for someone to buy real estate if you were only going to earn 4.5 or 5% for the next 30 years? Probably not. But that's the going rate today. Would I feel better about loaning money if I was going to earn 8 or 9 or 10%? Probably. The problem is that mortgage interest rates are half that. So "investors" like me aren't loaning money for such purchases. The US government can not loan money at these low rates 4.5 to 5% forever. When the US stops loaning money rates will have to go up enough to attract other investors. So, expect interest rates to go up for this reason and with the coming inflation.
• We believe that there is pent up demand for properties. In many cases people stopped buying in 2005 or so. Those folks have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the dust to settle before they will buy. However, there's a point where people don't want to wait, or can't wait, any longer (i.e. pent up demand) and they buy. There is strong evidence to suggest that things are getting there. In downtown Phoenix, condo sales far exceed the supply (see chart below). You'll see that in 2008, inventory (the number of condos for sale) far exceeded the number of buyers so prices dropped and dropped and dropped. In February 2009, the line representing inventory and the line representing the number of buyers intersected meaning that the numbers of buyers and the numbers of sellers were about equal. Since then, dramatically more people are buying than people are selling.

Gang, there are always exceptions to any rule. But it is our opinion that there are great deals out there for those who know where to look AND who meet certain other criteria. If interest rates do go up, and I strongly believe they will, then you might want to take advantage of today's low rates, take advantage of the many sellers who really do need to sell (at lower prices), and get yourself a great urban condo now rather than later. Don't be one of those folks who years from now say "boy I really wish I had bought when I had the chance." Call us at We Know Urban Realty and get our help. We don't sugar coat stuff and we know where the deals are and can show you why they are good deals.

Prices at Optima Biltmore Towers in Phoenix Arizona have steadily dropped since early 2006 when the building was first completed and delivered to the buyers. This price drop was largely attributable to the very large number of investors who bought condos in that building and then tried to flip them for a profit. With a sudden surge of "over priced" condos and a growing awareness on the part of the public that we were heading for a slow down led to a major slow down in sales and eventually "distressed" owners who resorted to renting, short sales, and eventual foreclosure. When this happens prices drop.

For more information on Optima Bilmore Towers.

I just heard (this has not been 100% verified but the source is good enough that I feel safe in disclosing what you're about to read) that several principals of Century Plaza are being sued by over twenty former buyers of these midtown Phoenix high rise condominiums. These twenty-some buyers are/were under contract to buy over thirty condos (i.e. some buyers were under contract for more than one unit each).

If this is true and over thirty units are at risk of not closing then it's my bet that Century Plaza is in some REAL trouble.

Here's why:

There are a total of 145 condominiums in the community. In roughly March or April I had been told by a sales person that approximately 80 of the condominiums were under contract. In early July construction was "completed" and the push was on to close the transactions. Since that time to the best of our knowledge only 14 buyers have actually closed on their purchases. So that means that less than 10% of the units have closed while double that number of contracts are at risk of falling through with the law suit. On top of that I have heard of at least four other buyers that want out and I'd be surprised if there aren't a lot more. Afterall, you'd think that if someone wanted to close they would have done so over the last five+ months. I would bet that almost no one else of those eighty contracts has any real intention of closing but that's a total guess.

And with all this going on, how many new buyers is Century Plaza likely to come up with?

I mean with fewer than 10% sold would you want to buy into a building if you knew other people are suing in order to get out of their deals? I would think most buyers would prefer to take the safer route of not closing now and waiting to see which direction things head. And if this happens I'll bet that the lender is getting really impatient and worried. If the lender gets nervous and if the developer can't make it's payments (I'm not saying this is the case I'm simply hypothesizing right now) then its just a matter of time before the lender begins foreclosure proceedings. Now if the developer has plenty of money to pay the loan costs then that's a whole nother story. We'll see....