The Catalina Foothills

someone wants to live in Eleven Arches

or maybe they just want 7900 sf. Either way they’re covered.

3401 E Camino A Los Vientos went to contract today at a neat
2 million$$ list price ($253/sf) - 7913 sf in Eleven Arches. And coincidentally, I mentioned this house yesterday in here’s News.

We don’t know what the contract price was, but given that it was once listed for $2.9 the sellers may not be completely thrilled.
But they should be.

Just 3 homes at 7500 sf or more have sold in the Tucson Foothills in the last 2 years. And one of them was a fire sale spec home, also in Eleven Arches, that went for almost 50 cents on the dollar. (Originally at $2.7, listed for $2.3 at time of sale, sold for $1.2 ($143/sf). I’m betting they did better than that. So take the money and run.

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in a nod to the ailing market

6710 N Longfellow Dr, which sold for $975,000 in August 08, was listed today for $939,500 ($277/sf).

To say the least, buying in August 08 - just moments before everything crumbled - was very unfortunate timing. So, with a 3.6% price cut under their belt, it will be interesting & instructive to see how it goes this time round.

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January - 38 homes sold in the Tucson Foothills

Here’s the data for those 38 sales;

Average/Median List & Average $/sf @ List
$580,913/$425,450 @ $186/sf

Average/Median Sold & Average $/sf @ Sold
$535,001/$412,500 @ $172/sf

Low $$ Sold - $225,000 
High $$ Sold - $1,475,000

30 Sold $225,000 to $560,000
3  Sold $729,000 to $860,000
5  Sold $1,050,000 to $1,475,000

Average CDOM (cumulative days on market)  – 192

+

Comparing January’s - # sold + average/median sold $$’s:
Jan 10 – 34 ($535,001/$412,500)
Jan 09 – 23 ($498,022/$396,000)
Jan 08 – 34 ($745,424/$510,000)
Jan 07 – 42 ($669,871/$520,000)
Jan 06 – 53 ($703,800/$620,000)

So, though it’s not saying all that much, for now, sales & prices appear to be inching up from the lowest of lows of last January.
… small favors and all that rah-rah.

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here’s News

7828 N Ancient Indian Dr, a Pima Canyon spec on the market 1 year, dropped it’s price from $2,938,635 to $2,869,000, a $69,635 cut, that’s now $389.55/sf. Every little bit counts.

7 homes have gone to contract in the last 24 hours – 6 of them priced from $345,000 to $575,000 and 1 at $974,000.

Here’s the deal on the $974,000 contract. After 1178 days on the market 7598 N Mystic Canyon Dr, another Pima Canyon spec built in 2007, went to contract yesterday listed at $974,000 ($274/sf).  A nice enough house but, like many specs, built on a lot that some have found to be less than desirable. This one is at the far southwest corner of PC and adjacent to some sort of power generating or booster station. Back in the good old days it was listed for $1.4.

5000 N Circulo Sobrio in Cat 10 dropped from $1,775,000 to $1,499,000, now $258/sf. At that, it’s now down 47% from its start 2 years ago at $2,850,000. And whether or not that was a fair market price, and apparently it wasn’t, it has now dropped quite a bit more than the market has. On the other hand, all signs point to a market where prices are still dropping. So who knows.

Also in Cat 10, 4705 N Via De La Granja, with its first price cut since being listed dropped from $1,895,000 to $1,695,000 ($275/sf)

And in the gone but not forgotten department, Cat 10 again.
3770 E Placita De Piacho, listed just 7 days ago, has been withdrawn from the market. I wonder why. Was asking $1,250,000 ($341/sf), built 1998 and never before on the market.
Kinda pricey, but it looked like my kind of house and I was hoping to find a buyer who felt the same way and then we’d try and tackle the price.

And in Eleven Arches, 3401 E Camino A Los Vientos, on and off the market since January 09 came back on today at $2,000,000 ($253/sf), down appreciably from its $2,900,000 starting price. This is a biggie, 7913 sf/built 2007/5 Beds/5 Baths + two half baths/2 story/not a spec, per se, but built for the owners who 2 years later put it up for sale, so what, an investment property. aha.

4911 N Avenida De Castilla was $1,149,000, is now $699,900. It’s now also a foreclosure. That’s in Hacienda del Sol estates,

and in La Paloma,

6106 N Placita Pajaro, just 82 days on the market and it’s under contract at $699,500 ($265/sf) list price.

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another day another 4 million dollar listing

This latest one is in the Canyons. 3508 E Secret Canyon Dr was listed today for $4,200,000, uh, that’s $660 & 79 cents/sf.

At 6356 sf/built 2005/4 Beds/5 Baths + two 1/2 baths - when you gotta go …/anyway,/3.4 acres/masonry construction/Ron Robinette Architecture/a pool a spa/a 4 car/1 level/and never before on the market

This home, which I’m sure is quite beautiful, joins ranks with the other 8 homes for sale in the Canyons listed from $2,200,000 to $13,500,000. But the last 2 sold, sold in Feb 08 for $2.1 and July 08 for $2.6. And nothing since, and nothing ever above $3.8.

So I can’t help wondering, why are all these expensive homes getting listed for sale, while very few expensive homes are selling and none, zero, zilch, are selling at these prices. In other words, it’s a crappy time to be selling an expensive home, but owners of these homes continue to list them for sale. Why?

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strike 2 for Cat 10

4700 N Camino Sumo in Cat 10, on the market for 1 year, sold today for, could it be, $616,700 ($157/sf) off an $890,000 list price. This is big.

Listed last January for $1,050,000, it had just 2 price cuts, to $995,000 and to $890,000 and held tight until they couldn’t hold anymore and caved-in to a $616,700 offer.

In December I represented the buyers of a house in Cat 10 that was originally listed, 2 years earlier, at $1,750,000 and sold for $995,000 ($168/sf). The lowest $/sf price in eons. When it closed I called it a mixed blessing for Cat 10, good that something sold in there, but not so good, for sellers anyway, that it sold for $168/sf, There’s no getting around it, I said, the price bar has been lowered …

And now it’s been lowered again. That’s the obvious flaw in sellers boasting, and you hear it all the time, Oh, we can wait (to get our price)

Oh Yeah. In a market that’s going down, and this one sure is, guess what, the longer you wait the lower prices go. And if a couple of your neighbors wake up to reality one day and get tired of waiting, like these two did, you’re really up the creek. 

Sales data for Cat 10, last 6 months 

4 sold - $587,500 to $995,000
Average/median & $/sf sold $$ - $738,550/$685,850 @ $197/sf

vs.
For Sale data for Cat 10

18 for sale - $729,000 to $2,650,000
Average/median & $/sf list $$ - $1,625,278/$1,499,500 @ $323/sf

So, should that house listed at $1.8 @ $394/sf be lucky enough to find a buyer, the appraiser is going to have to get pretty creative to make the numbers work. And from what I hear, these days, creativity is not an option for appraisers who want keep on being appraisers.

And no, it wasn’t a short sale or foreclosure.

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on defying gravity

2002 E Quiet Canyon Dr is a new listing today in Pima Canyon.

It was built in 2002 and sold brand new, in 2002, for $715,000.
Then it sold again in 2003 for $850,000 (in just 14 days) and then again in July 2007 for $1,110,000, in just 88 days. (that was just weeks before the first shoe dropped, the big mortgage meltdown)

And today, as it joins the 21 other homes for sale in PC, they’re asking $1,200,000.

See it HERE and judge for yourself

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re-listed in Alta Vista

5751 E Placita Varas started out at $1,175,000 and left the market in August 09 at $1,095,000. Today it returned, with a new agent at a new lower price, but, phooey, it’s range priced and raather tightly - $995,000 - $1,050,000.

Built 1993/& recently remodeled

3470 sf/4 Beds/3.5 Baths/1 acre/1 story/pool-spa/3 car/
mountain views, I’ll say

From the pictures anyway, and if you don’t take the range price to heart, and don’t worry most buyers don’t, it looks like a no-brainer.

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are we there yet

Nov, 2007 - $2,750,000 ($451/sf) > Aug, 2009 - $2,495,000 ($409/sf) > Feb, 2010 - $2,250,000 ($369/sf)

2123 E Sentry Ridge Ct, a Pima Canyon spec built in 2008, took that latest price cut today.

That’s $500,000 off it’s original asking price, a nice chunk of change. But if you look at it in terms of where the market was in 2007 and where it is today, and you should, it’s not quite as impressive.

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a new low price leader for Cat 10

Joining the party in Cat 10 is 3920 E Corte De La Granja, first time on the market, and, thank goodness, listed for $729,000 ($269/sf), so not another million $$+ home to clog up the works.

Disclosure; I’m partial to La Quinta’s, because they build great homes, and this is a La Quinta.
Built 1990/2+ acres/burnt adobe construction/2712 sf/3 Beds/
3 Baths/including separate guest casita/2 car/no pool/& District 16

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