IN THE NEWS!

The first article, Valley's pricey areas not in nations top 100, from the Arizona Republic, reports that when it comes to a list of the nation's most expensive zip codes, Paradise Valley's 85253 and Scottsdale's 85262 just don't measure up to the Hampton's in New York and the exclusive Rancho Santa Fe in Southern California. A recent Forbes magazine analysis of the 2005 median home sales prices rank Paradise Valley No. 122 and Scottsdale's 85262 at No. 390. "I would say that they still know they live like kings at the top of the mountain," said RL Brown, a Valley housing analyst who sees good news in the relatively low rankings of Arizona's high-rolling homeowners. "We're affordable" in comparison to the nation's most expensive areas, he said. Realtor Rusty Davis of Russ Lyon Realty said that in the past three months, 77 homes have sold in Paradise Valley at an average of $2.7 million, including a $9.5 million home northwest of Scottsdale Road and Doubletree Ranch Road.

http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/print.php?referer=http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0621biz-sr-biz0621realestate.html

The second article, Growth stretches areas of the Sun Belt, from the USA TODAY, reports that 2005 city population estimates released by the Census Bureau on Wednesday show that growth is shifting from large central cities that grew rapidly years ago to smaller, outlying communities in California, Texas, Arizona and Florida. Among the top gainers was Gilbert, which grew 11 percent from 2004 to 2005, ranking it the forth fastest growing city over 100,000 in population in the country. Several other Arizona cities made the list of fastest growing cities, including Chandler, Phoenix, Mesa and Scottsdale. The article shows the trend that will benefit the Metro Phoenix real estate market- that people are still moving here in large numbers. The article states that Phoenix added the most people, 44,000, from 2004 to 2005, and ranks Phoenix as the sixth largest city in population in the U.S.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2006-06-21-census-figures_x.htm