Phoenix relocation agent Kathleen Mazzocco welcomes you to the Phoenix Metro area, where clear skies, spectacular mountain views and the chance to live the lifestyle you have been waiting for. Whether you’re looking to live in a golf course community or need a place nearby to recreational amenities such as hiking, boating, swimming, or entertainment, you’ll find it all here. The Greater Phoenix area offers easy to maintain condos, townhouses or single-family homes for sale in Phoenix, AZ, as well as Scottsdale, Arizona golf homes and Anthem, Arizona homes. Kathleen is the Phoenix Realtor who can help you find that perfect place in the desert you’ve been dreaming of.

Backed by the resources of RE/MAX Fine Properties, Kathleen is a full-time residential Realtor in Phoenix, AZ selling homes in the communities of North Phoenix, Anthem, Arrowhead, Cave Creek, Desert Hills, Glendale, Mesa, New River, Paradise Valley, Peoria, Scottsdale, and Tramonto. Kathleen has negotiated and networked on the behalf of her real estate clients for over 20 years, and always keeps her marketing strategies updated and creative.

Kathleen has worked with a variety of clients from across and outside of the country, and this has given her a firm grasp of all the details that need to be considered when relocating. Kathleen truly is an Arizona relocation professional, she doesn’t just help you find the home you want, but also helps you become engaged in your new community by providing information for activities and local events so you can begin to enjoy the highest-quality lifestyle as soon as you are moved in. Your comfort level and settling into your new home and neighborhood in Arizona is of the foremost importance to Kathleen.

As an award-winning real estate agent for RE/MAX Fine Properties and as the recipient of the Century 21 2008 Masters Ruby Award, it’s clear that Kathleen’s goal is to provide premier service at all times. She is also an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR®), a Certified Distressed Property Professional for properties that are in pre-foreclosure and bank owned, and has achieved both the GRI designation and NAR’s Green Designation.

It’s a buyer’s market right now, so there are great opportunities for you to land the home of your dreams for much less than you ever imagined possible. If you’re interested in golf course homes, Anthem, AZ has a great selection and you can also choose from Scottsdale, AZ golf course homes for sale. Whether you are a corporate employee relocating, a home buyer just looking for a second home in Arizona, or an investor looking to acquiring property foreclosures and lender or bank owned homes, Kathleen will guide you through the process of how to buy a property at the best possible price and terms. Mortgage rates are at an all time low. FHA financing is a way to help you buy a home with small contributions of your own dollars. Let Kathleen help guide you to a mortgage consultant to assist in getting you pre-approved for a mortgage and provide you with a prequalification form to show sellers that you are a serious buyer in today’s competitive market. Contact Kathleen Mazzocco to begin moving to Arizona today.

Please browse through the website and let your Phoenix relocation agent Kathleen Mazzocco help you come home to Arizona.

The Arizona Department of Housing has $269 million in federal foreclosure-prevention funds.

The state agency is offering homeowners $4,500 and to pay their 3 percent closing costs if they work with their lender to complete a short sale instead of losing their home to foreclosure. But, of course, like the principal-reduction loan modifications, it’s all up to the lenders whether the deals go through.


Housing Director Michael Trailor said the state agency will start taking applications for the short-sale program today. It’s the same site that is taking applications for the principal reduction loan-modification program and unemployment mortgage aid, both of which also are being funded by federal money from the Hardest Hit Housing program.
The principal reduction loan program was launched a year ago, and Trailor said as many as 30,000 Arizona homeowners should qualify.He said the miserable results, because of the lender’s reluctance to cut principal and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s policy not to reduce loan amounts, have been a frustrating and time-wasting effort for his agency during the past year.

So, to try to spend some of the money to help homeowners, the agency received approval from the U.S. Treasury Department to start the short-sale program.The Housing Department is also expanding its program to cover mortgage payments for more unemployed and underemployed homeowners who are eligible.

“We want to spend this money to help homeowners, but we need lenders’ help,” Trailor said. “Anyone who thinks they are eligible should immediately apply at our website.”

Phoenix will be the setting for a new reality show about one of the region’s most competitive and heart-racing activities – bidding on foreclosure homes.Agents who work at Maricopa County’s foreclosure auctions are in negotiations to appear on the show, which is planned to start airing on the Discovery Channel next year.

Filming for “Betting the House” is expected to begin in the next few weeks.New York-based Sharp Entertainment, producer of the show, also created “Punkin Chunkin” for the Discovery Channel, “Man vs. Food” for the Travel Channel and “Extreme Couponing” for TLC.

Now, cameras will be filming outside the county courthouse in downtown Phoenix.
Although the company did not comment on the details of the show it is planning, the daily auction scene is one of colorful characters and sometimes intense bidding on the region’s foreclosure homes.

As many as three auctioneers may be taking bids at once, and the agents and buyers who try to land good deals rush from auction to auction, placing offers, talking to their offices by cellphone and trying to make sure they don’t miss a deal in the process.

At its heart, the attraction of the auction scene is the promise of a house – to be a home, a rental or just a quick investment – for an amazing deal. Sharp picked three veteran bidders at Phoenix’s foreclosure auctions to follow.

Lenders have been selling a record number of Phoenix-area homes at the foreclosure auctions known as trustee sales. In August, 1,500 foreclosure homes sold at auction.Trustee sales at the courthouse used to start at noon, but there are so many houses that lenders are trying to sell that the auctions have been moved up to 11 a.m. or earlier and still often go to 5 p.m.

But the frenzy can’t last much longer.

Already, competition has driven bidding prices up too high for some investors. At the same time, foreclosures have been falling this year.Notices-of-trustee sales, or pre-foreclosures, are half of what they were a year ago. The number of pending foreclosures in Maricopa County is down to 19,000, half of what it was two years ago.

“I doubt reality TV will shine a positive light on our housing market, although it should be entertaining,” said Tom Ruff, real-estate analyst with Information Market.His firm tracks foreclosures daily. “There are definitely some colorful personalities chasing foreclosure properties. Expect them to further Arizona’s image as the Wild West.”

Stay tuned.

ANTHEM GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB
ANNOUNCES A NEW GOLF MEMBERSHIP CATEGORY

Anthem’s Golf Membership has been available to residents living outside the Country Club Community for nearly ten years. The Club has quickly become one of the top 5 Clubs that are a part of ClubCorp, World Leader in Private Clubs with over 130 golf and country clubs worldwide.

We are now offering a new category designed specifically for golfers who live in Anthem Parkside. The Club provides a premier golf experience with 36 holes
without the high cost of a comparable Scottsdale Golf Club.

PREFERRED MEMBERSHIP INVITATION
Corridor Golf Membership
$11,000 Initiation Fee
Act quickly as this Introductory Initiation Fee is only available for a limited time.The customary Initiation Fee is normally the same as our full golf requirement of $21,000 Annual dues are just $500 per month inclusive of your family

The Corridor Golf Membership is designed for golfers who live in Anthem Parkside, who desire access to great golf, superb dining, and fun social activities of a top private Country Club!

• Members have no capital assessments and no food and beverage minimums.

• Anthem Golf Members enjoy access to complimentary greens fees at over 130 golf and country clubs.

• Anthem has an active Men’s and Ladies Golf Association that each plays two days per week.

• Anthem has two Clubhouses, championship golf courses, golf practice facilities, and restaurants.

Mark Lewicki, Membership Director / 623-742-6202  or email: mark.lewicki@ourclub.com

Currently, metro Phoenix’s overall median sales price is $124,000. But because many of the homes sold are foreclosure auctions – in which low-priced homes are common – that number could be seen as low. Other homes may be worth far more. But few of those homes are selling, so they’re not represented in the median price.
Today, in the general Phoenix area, a regular home sells for about $112 a square foot. A house sold through short sale goes for an average of $72 a square foot. A bank-owned, Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae home sells for approx. $61.50 a square foot. And foreclosure homes selling at auction are averaging $57 a square foot.

“Everyone is trying to figure out Phoenix’s housing market now, but there’s no one set of data that truly tells the story. All the regular models for tracking the market are broken now,” said Tom Ruff of the Information Market. “There is not just one market in metro Phoenix anymore.”  Measures of the overall market are harder to trust today because Comparable properties are not consistent and can be confusing to a buyer or seller trying to determine a market value for a property in today’s market.  Every area, every neighborhood is different.That confusion makes it especially hard for homeowners and homesellers to know what their houses are worth.

The different type of categories for home sales transactions in the market have each begun to work in their own ways, real-estate market watchers say. Some parts see a lot of sales but low prices; others, the opposite.

- Traditional resales: Fewer of these happen because of competition from cheaper foreclosures and short sales. The ones that sell best are in popular neighborhoods with good schools, near freeways and shopping centers. But the percentage of foreclosure homes listed for sale in metro Phoenix has dropped by 5 percent in the past year, so regular sellers have less competition and might soon find it more easy to sell.

- New-home sales: Homebuilding has slowed to a crawl in metro Phoenix as the market continues to sell the many houses built on speculation during the boom years. Even with low land prices, it’s still hard for homebuilders to compete with the prices of foreclosure houses that were built less than five years ago.

- Foreclosure auctions: These have become very popular, and a large volume of homes sell at metro Phoenix trustee auction each month. But homes sell at auction for lower prices, and that makes the market’s overall average sales price lower.

- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Homes owned by these entities now dominate the metro area’s market. But the agencies often change their policies on appraising, maintaining, renting and selling their houses, so some buyers and real-estate agents steer clear of the hassles of these deals.

- Short sales: This type of sale was rare a decade ago. Banks were reluctant to agree to them in the early part of the crash, but they have now become common. Because they’re not a foreclosure sale, but also are not a traditional sale, the value of a short-sale transaction skews the overall market in ways that are hard to measure.

“The one indicator we can still count on is location,” Ruff said. “Homes in the right areas will continue to sell for the highest prices.”

Median home prices for single family homes in Phoenix, AZ in June 2010 was around $143,000.  June 2011 shows a median price for a single family home to be around $126,500 for the Valley compared to a median price in May 2011 of  $125,000.  A slight increase is good news.

The number of foreclosure pre-filings has been declining for the last year.  The Phoenix-area housing market had 3,280 single-family foreclosures in June, down compared to June 2010 which had 3,835.

In general, available home inventory is low, a sudden increase in listings could cause another decline in prices, though.  Some areas of Phoenix, AZ are seeing a great improvement in housing prices.  New home building is rising too. 

The Arizona Housing department is administering federal funds for homeowners working towards a loan modification.  The department has agreed to match up to $50,000 in principal reductions IF, lenders will agree.  Only a few of these have been completed so far.  The Arizona Housing officials say they are close to working with Bank of America principal reduction loan modifications.  Let’s hope this turns into hundreds

Yet, another benefit from living at Anthem goes beyond the amenities themselves. With a full time staff, dedicated to helping you and your family get involved, residents regularly participate in programmed activities such as sports leagues, kids & teen camps, and community carnivals– just to name a few.

And if the amenities aren’t impressive enough, Anthem’s location provides quick access to some of the best destinations in Arizona. Lake Pleasant is just minutes away. Downtown Phoenix is a 35 minute drive while Sedona and Flagstaff is a quick get-a-way destination cool spot.

Contact Kathleen Mazzocco, relocation specialist, to guide you through a tour of Anthem, AZ and find out if this is your next place in Arizona!