Prescott Valley subdivisions -good ones, bad ones, etc. (Chino Valley: short sales, foreclosures)

[checkthecodes]

One of our friends who lives in Pronghorn Ranch sent us this information...
.
.
The developer's bonds are for the basic infrastructure of the individual tracts, such as sewer assessments, park development, school development, etc. It can vary with each development.

At this time,all of the developers in Prescott Valley, except pronghorn ranch, have included a percentage of the total bond, based on each property's share, in the sales price of each home. When you purchase your home, it is taken care of as part of your total sales price. It will show on your escrow papers as a sewer bond etc, water bond, school district bond..whatever it happens to be.

In pronghorn ranch, the developer doesn't add the bond to the price of the home, apparently hoping to make the homes appear to be cheaper per square foot.

Every 2 years the homeowners in pronghorn are re-assessed for these bonds and receive a separate bill, like property tax bill.. These are 25 or 27 year bonds, so this will go on for a long time.

This is supposedly disclosed to the buyers, but, so far every owner in Pronghorn that I have spoken to about it, was shocked and surprised when they received it.

================================================== =====

The main reason we didn’t buy in the sub-divisions was the poor construction. Take a drive down the main road in Pronghorn Ranch and look at the roofs; you “should” see a nice roof… what you will see is the outline of the roof trusses showing, why… it could be due to over span or thin plywood bowing down. In the other sub-divisions we noticed warped wood and aluminum siding and cracked stucco around many of the homes. Our friend’s home in Pronghorn.Ranch has beam outside across the top of the garage door painted brown, they showed us that it is not a wood beam but is made out of foam… So make sure to ask if you buy a home or have one built or inspected what areas are made of foam. I don’t want to sound negative; there are some great builders here. You just have to watch the builders and contractors who come and go and do a lousy job.

[checkthecodes]

Tony next time you visit take a look out on 89A just out past the fairgrounds, some nice size homes with a good size lot and the prices seems to be pretty decent. Your away from the wall to wall neighbors and can breathe. Your are still close enough to the town that it's a 5 minute drive in. If you have an RV or boat you can park it on your lot without any problems... you can see the same type homes and lots in Chino Valley called Appaloosa Meadows west of highway 89 and are single built and not tract houses.

[Gretchen B]

There are a lot of new "spec" homes available in Prescott Valley that are really nice and about the same price as the tract homes. Most of these spec homes were built by smaller builders who build custom and semi-custom homes, so the quality is generally very good. I think the area that checkthecodes is referring to is Mingus West - a really nice subdivision with spec homes on 1/2 acre lots. Also, there are some nice spec homes in The Viewpoint, too. Appaloosa Meadows in Chino Valley is really nice - those homes are on 1-acre+ lots. There are a couple of other similar subdivisions in Chino Valley that are similar - newer homes on large 1+ acre lots. I agree with checkthecodes that some of these homes offer a better quality value than many of the tract homes.

[checkthecodes]

Yes, Gretchen B your correct with Mingus West that's the homes I was referring to. The one major point I want to point out is the medical insurance when one retires in California and moves out of state. Most retirees assume that their medical insurance won't change then make the move to find out later that their zero cost HMO will now be changed to PPO and an out of the pocket cost as much as $650 a month for a married couple. It's one of those things that one has to get in writing from their retirement board.... One fact there is no Kaiser here in Arizona but there is Blue Shield and Blue Cross....

[RockyRoadg]

Quailwood is nice, but Pronghorn is my favorite. You can take off on your ATV's right from your house and get to the trail that goes to Jerome. Here is a picture of my freinds house in Pronghorn.
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/3...nhouse6fb3.jpg

[Kelly314]

Planning on moving to the Prescott Valley and I'm interested in knowing who some of the better builders are.

Not interested in a custom house as I'm sure they're pretty expensive.

[BriansPerspective]

Originally Posted by Kelly314

Planning on moving to the Prescott Valley and I'm interested in knowing who some of the better builders are.

Not interested in a custom house as I'm sure they're pretty expensive.

Hi Kelly,
Here are the primary builders in Prescott Valley:
Granville: North Sky & Universal
Pronghorn: Brown Family Builders
Viewpoint: Read Homes, Rising Star, & Townsend who is now bankrupt and no longer building
Stoneridge: Suncor
Quailwood: Empire and Townsend (both bankrupt and no longer building)
Other builders: Neil Klein has built many homes around PV.

Custom homes are not neccessarily expensive. Often the original owners will have paid a premium for a custom home, but on the resale market, the custom home gets priced close to the other homes.

Cheers,
Brian

[Gretchen B]

Originally Posted by Kelly314

Planning on moving to the Prescott Valley and I'm interested in knowing who some of the better builders are.

Not interested in a custom house as I'm sure they're pretty expensive.

There are quite a few quality "spec" home builders in Prescott Valley. The prices are generally pretty comparable with some of the larger tract homes.

In addition to the tract home builders BiggsHomes mentioned, some of the spec builders are: PVO, Capistrano Homes, Read (builds both spec and tract homes), HR Quality, Perkins, Crafty Hands, and J Edwards. I've had quite a few clients start out looking at large builder tract homes, but then deciding that they prefer the quality of the spec homes and end up opting for one of those.

[checkthecodes]

I live in "spec" home in unit 19 and one of my friends bought in Pronghorn and the prices were pretty equal per sq. ft. It's just a matter of what your looking for in a house and neighborhood... For 4 years I would visit my friends who have lived here all their lives.. Some people buy here then end up not liking it or miss their grand children and move back home or closer to family. If your not sure it might be wise to rent for a year then build or buy.. Myself my house is on a 1/4 acre and I just wanted some space between next door neighbors and RV parking and no HOA... Some people like sub-divisions and HOA's so you never have to worry about the neighborhood looking run down... There are quite a few junky areas here in Prescott Valley. The Prescott Country Club is nice and might be another one to add to your list. Also for anyone who buys a home here, Arizona real estate laws are different than California so when I found the home I wanted I contected my friends- friend who was a realtor here, so as a buyer there was no hidden things to pop up during escrow.

[tony soprano]

Tons and tons of good info. Thanks for everyone's contributions. Seemingly, the more I learn, the more questions I create.

To some extent I had been fixated on tract homes because those seem to be the examples I run across most frequently while searching online. That, and tract homes are all I've lived in really. The notion of putting some space between me and my neighbor does hold some appeal to me, so I'll broaden my searches to capture some of the non-tract offerings in PV.