4-29-06 IN THE NEWS!

The first article, Valley home market continues cooling off trend, from the Phoenix Business Journal, reports that new home permits fell 24 percent in March 2006 from March 2005 numbers, according to the April issues of The Phoenix Housing Market Letter from RL Brown. For the first quarter of 2006, there were 12,868 single-family new home permits issues, down 16 percent from the first quarter of 2005. "The metro Phoenix housing market is returning to normal after an extraordinary year that allowed housing prices to rise much more rapidly than at any time in history," said Brown. Resales fell more than 25 percent in March from a year ago, and are down 16 percent for the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2005. "There's no question that the Phoenix housing market of April 2006 is different from the market of the last year," Brown said. "It was clear that the 2005 pace was not sustainable."

http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2006/04/24/daily43.html?t=printable

The second article, Glut of homes for sale appears to be market correction, from the Arizona Republic Southeast Valley, reports that the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service says the number of homes for sale in the Southeast Valley hit 13,836 in March. A year earlier it was 1,068. The number of homes for sale- a 10 percent jump up from February- could be a record. The market is apparently still correcting itself after last years frenzy. The good news is that the number of homes sold in the Southeast Valley grew from 2,360 in February to 2,920 in March. Detached homes are taking an average of 53 days to sell, and condos are taking 40 days. One interesting note is the number of high-end homes for sale in the Southeast Valley. There were 2,455 homes priced at $500,000 or more in the Southeast Valley in March.

http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/print.php?referer=http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/0428ev-realestate0428Z6.html

The third article, Phoenix, Yuma among 'Inc.' hottest cities, from the Phoenix Business Journal, reports that Inc. Magazine ranked Phoenix the sixth-hottest large "City for Doing Business" and 36th overall among cities of all sizes. Phoenix was in part recognized for its robust growth in the financial services sector. Yuma topped the overall and small cities list with an 8.3 percent one-year job growth rate and a 32 percent five-year growth rate. "Strong job growth suggests an expanding economy, which means new demands and new opportunities for entrepreneurs", said Jane Berentson, Inc's editor.

http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2006/04/24/daily41.html?t=printable