expensive Phoenix homes (condos, buy, prices)

[asufan]

Originally Posted by sandy6879

We just got back from San Diego and took a look at pricing - it's not as bad as what people make it out to be. There's not thousands of houses in our range the way it is in Phoenix, but there are plenty to look at if one wanted to make the move. Food prices aren't that much more (we went to a few grocery stores there) and property taxes, while higher than here, aren't as bad as in other areas of the country. That being said - I wouldn't pay those prices in Phoenix either, I'd also much rather be in a nicer area if I'm going to pay that much.

We looked at a house in Encinitas much like ours in Chandler, newer Tuscan design 1-story, 3100 SF (ours is 3600 sf) good size lot, 3 car garage. Main difference is ours has a pool and a gourmet kitchen this one was lacking. This house is on the East side of the 5 Fwy and listed for $1.3mm. Ours in Chandler is valued in the mid-600's but is nicer in many ways, so it's more than twice as expensive (there are cheaper SD suburbs however). location, location, location. We plan to return to the area I was raised in south oc in 10 years or so and figure we'll need to budget at least $1-1.2mm for what we want (likely half the sf of our current home and not as nice lol).

[FirebirdCamaro1220]

Originally Posted by asufan

We looked at a house in Encinitas much like ours in Chandler, newer Tuscan design 1-story, 3100 SF (ours is 3600 sf) good size lot, 3 car garage. Main difference is ours has a pool and a gourmet kitchen this one was lacking. This house is on the East side of the 5 Fwy and listed for $1.3mm. Ours in Chandler is valued in the mid-600's but is nicer in many ways, so it's more than twice as expensive (there are cheaper SD suburbs however). location, location, location. We plan to return to the area I was raised in south oc in 10 years or so and figure we'll need to budget at least $1-1.2mm for what we want (likely half the sf of our current home and not as nice lol).

For $650k, you can get a house in Orange Co as long as it's west of the 55

[asufan]

Originally Posted by FirebirdCamaro1220

For $650k, you can get a house in Orange Co as long as it's west of the 55

I know all about OC. while you're right, what it'll get me is not what I want (it would buy a small 2-story on an undersized lot in a city I don't care to live in). plus my wife is overpaid here and I run my business here, it would be hard to match our incomes after a move so we're going to move back there after an early retirement or semi-retirement

[kell490]

My childhood Huntington beach, CA home in OC is selling for 1 million it's a plane Jane stick built track home my parents paid 13k for in 1976. Too bad didn't take my fathers offer up to buy it from him in 1989 for 220k. LOL Phoenix is lot like Orange county was in the 1970's homes were being built like crazy and cheap too. You will have to drive 2 hours from Phoenix to find lower cost homes.

[azdr0710]

Originally Posted by kell490

My childhood Huntington beach, CA home in OC is selling for 1 million it's a plane Jane stick built track home my parents paid 13k for in 1976.

are you sure about that?.....there weren't even homes in Phx that cheap in 1976....basic John F Longs (cheapest homes in Phx) were about $17K that year in Phx.....

[KurtAZ]

Originally Posted by AndroidAZ

Here are a few homes I found - 3051 E Marlette Ave, 3 bed / 3 bath, 1.8k sq feet, 4.7k sq ft lot, $689k

2544 E Vermont Ave, 4 bed / 3 bath, 2.5k sq feet, 8.9k sq ft lot, $689k

3122 E Claremont Ave, 4 bed / 3 bath, 2.5k sq ft, 8k sq ft log, $649.5k

Those homes are all in the Biltmore area. Yes, they will be more expensive.

[43north87west]

Why is that a surprise? That area has never been cheap and probably never will be. The same goes for a bunch of other neighborhoods in Phoenix. Back east, that area would have been walled off as an individual tiny suburb where people pay thirty grand just for taxes on a little house. But the residents would be able to boast impossibly high demographics because it would only be 2 square miles of nothing but homes and a couple token businesses on the 2 main thoroughfares.

But since it's in Phoenix, the underlying assumption is that it's not nice and therefore should be cheaper.

[hawaiiancoconut]

Location Location. I had a home in the Baltimore Area that I just sold last year; yes indeed its very expensive.

I'm currently having a new home build in North Scottsdale - its not cheaper, but its not as congested as the Baltimore area.

[Jukesgrrl]

As asufan and every Realtor in the country will tell you: location, location, location. Arcadia and the Camelback/Biltmore corridor in general is one of the most desired areas in the metro for a single-family home. There are plenty of neighborhoods with more recent prestige and more glamorous houses, but none that has held value the length of time this area has. You can always go further out for bigger and better, but these are exceptionally nice homes in very close proximity to the center of Phoenix. And since the area is built out, there are never going to be significantly more of these houses.

I make a point of taking East Coast visitors — who usually hold the prejudice that Phoenix is nothing but beige tract houses — to Arcadia. We drive around and look at the houses and I take them to lunch at Le Grande Orange. Then I drive them over to historic Willo/Encanto for the final mind-blowing. "I had no idea Phoenix looked like this!" is the comment I get constantly. That drives prices up.

[azriverfan.]

They are overpriced. The reason is Phoenix has so many cookie cutter stucco homes that when you get the non-adobe hut style homes in a nice area, the asking price can be astronomical. There are homes in the wealthiest areas of South Florida that are much nicer but are cheaper than these homes in Phoenix because there is a bigger supply of nicer homes there. Unfortunately, there are too many stucco clones here. And when home builders come here, their semi-custom homes are not much better. You just have your choice of clone, but ultimately, those homes all look alike as well.

That has surprised me about the Valley. You don't have a lot of classic gated neighborhoods with custom homes here. They are incredibly rare here whereas is in other cities, you can find more of them and even new developments have them. And the ones that do exist here are grossly overpriced by about 500K to 1 million when compared to similar developments in other desirable sunbelt cities.