Buying in Downtown Phoenix (Scottsdale, Tempe: real estate, apartments, renter)

[ccurry4]

Hi all,

So, I'm a young physician working in a hospital in the West Valley. I currently live in an apartment in downtown Phoenix. I've been at my job for about 1.5 years and plan on staying for a while (at least until I pay off the student loans). I like the downtown Phoenix area and kind of want to stay (i've looked at Tempe and Scottsdale but I can't tolerate the commute).

So, there's a place that I love on 7th ave and Roosevelt (I'm currently at 3rd st and Pierce). The market is crazy for buying right now, so I kind of need to put in the offer sooner rather than later or risk losing out. I've toured the place with my realtor and really like it. As of today there are no other offers and pricing is comparable (even better) than similar properties downtown - although there's not a whole lot right now.

My question is, would it be wise to 'invest' in the downtown area? From the time that I've been here, it's grown quite a bit (I also did residency at Good Sam so I've been here for ~4.5 years and have lived downtown the entire time). It's a little further west than I'd like and can get a bit iffy at night, but I do enjoy the downtown area. Should I pull the trigger or try for further north - Encanto, etc? I'm not dying to buy right now and can afford to sit back and wait, but I'm afraid prices will only continue to rise - and I really like this particular property. It looks like a few years ago the same place sold for around 330k and now it's at 500k (3 bed, 3 bath).

Anyone with knowledge of downtown think properties are going to continue to appreciate?

Thanks so much!!!

[Bondurant]

No one can say for sure. I have been down here since '13. Rents and real estate prices keep rising. The influx of people does not stop. You will be buying high but it may continue to rise. Is buying the home you want worth it to you?

[DAXhound]

The small, 1946 house on a 7500 sf lot on 8th st@Indian School sold last year for 185,000. I paid 18,500 ten years before. The couple I sold it to in 2012, claimed they were going to tear it down, and never did. Midtown was kind of cool, but I can't think of one thing worth a trip downtown and I was an easy light rail ride away. Overpriced, touristy crap aimed at dworks from the Midwest, who consider salt a spice.

[markeg]

Are you looking at a house or a condo? That location seems to be fine.
I live in Midtown, near the Heard Museum and love it here. There are condos, and single family homes here. You can still purchase a condo here in the 300’s.

[grmi66]

Think long and hard about it. Used to live in Coronado and heard all the horror stories of leaky faucets that turned into $50,000 plumbing jobs. Or having to totally re-wire the old cloth electrical wiring. We were renting and were quite serious about staying in the area. From multiple folks in the neighborhood we were told that just be mentally prepared to drop $100,000 on repairs that you can't see before you can start doing fun stuff like updating the kitchen or expanding a bedroom.

The prospect of an expensive remodel and update to an historic home wasn't too big of a deal four years ago when we could have bought a fixer for $250,000. But when the same houses were selling for $400,000 a few years later, we threw our hands up and escaped back to suburbia.

I finally had to compare apples to apples. If I'm spending $300-$400,000 on a house I do not want to dodge passed out homeless people on my runs, hear the police helicopter nightly as they skim our house and getting woken up because my dogs caught another person sneaking into my backyard. Yes, it was great that I could walk to three different bars and had a front porch but after a couple of years that thrill wore off.

[DAXhound]

Originally Posted by grmi66

Think long and hard about it. Used to live in Coronado and heard all the horror stories of leaky faucets that turned into $50,000 plumbing jobs. Or having to totally re-wire the old cloth electrical wiring. We were renting and were quite serious about staying in the area. From multiple folks in the neighborhood we were told that just be mentally prepared to drop $100,000 on repairs that you can't see before you can start doing fun stuff like updating the kitchen or expanding a bedroom.

The prospect of an expensive remodel and update to an historic home wasn't too big of a deal four years ago when we could have bought a fixer for $250,000. But when the same houses were selling for $400,000 a few years later, we threw our hands up and escaped back to suburbia.

I finally had to compare apples to apples. If I'm spending $300-$400,000 on a house I do not want to dodge passed out homeless people on my runs, hear the police helicopter nightly as they skim our house and getting woken up because my dogs caught another person sneaking into my backyard. Yes, it was great that I could walk to three different bars and had a front porch but after a couple of years that thrill wore off.

They countered me at 45k in Coronado in 2010. Termites can be a beast in those crawl spaces.
Also, there are a number of downsides to living in an historic district, compared to Longview, for example, where you can remodel your own way. Walking to bars and shopping is great, but you can be a lot of places in NorthCentral and do that. Look at 16th St and Bethany...some good stuff around there, and much safer..and Madison Elementary District is relatively excellent compared to all the surrounding districts. A renter with kids would be foolish not to look around there..unless they had big money for private schools, and there are some very affluent households around there mixed into some reasonable apartments. Maintenance in those midcentury block homes is going to be much less than those historic homes, and likely less than a lot of sprayed chicken wire deal from the last forty years. Good soils, too.

[grmi66]

Looking over the original post again. Is it $500,000 for a house that's already been fixed up and has newer plumbing, electrical and foundation repairs?

Pretty amazing actually, when I first moved to Phoenix in the late 90's the Roosevelt area was primarily known for one thing. It was the place to pick up a transgendered hooker. That general area was where Danny Bonaduce (from the Partridge Family TV show) got into a fight with a hooker in the street when he discovered she was a he. It was an amazingly dicey area where one did not want to catch themselves after dark.

[DAXhound]

Originally Posted by grmi66

Looking over the original post again. Is it $500,000 for a house that's already been fixed up and has newer plumbing, electrical and foundation repairs?

Pretty amazing actually, when I first moved to Phoenix in the late 90's the Roosevelt area was primarily known for one thing. It was the place to pick up a transgendered hooker. That general area was where Danny Bonaduce (from the Partridge Family TV show) got into a fight with a hooker in the street when he discovered she was a he. It was an amazingly dicey area where one did not want to catch themselves after dark.

There were a few smallish, funky houses on small lots selling for 20k in the Roosevelt area in 2010.

[ccurry4]

So, I'm looking at a townhouse. It's relatively new construction (I believe 2006ish) so it shouldn't need to much work and the previous owners kept it in pretty good shape. It's not a "fixer upper" that's several decades old. There are just a few odd design choices the previous owners made that I'd change down the line.

I know there's condos that can be had for less (particularly in high rises) but I really don't want to share any walls or have anyone living above me. This place is unique in that it's technically part of a complex but it's an end unit and almost completely free standing.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by ccurry4

So, I'm looking at a townhouse. It's relatively new construction (I believe 2006ish) so it shouldn't need to much work and the previous owners kept it in pretty good shape. It's not a "fixer upper" that's several decades old. There are just a few odd design choices the previous owners made that I'd change down the line.

I know there's condos that can be had for less (particularly in high rises) but I really don't want to share any walls or have anyone living above me. This place is unique in that it's technically part of a complex but it's an end unit and almost completely free standing.

As others have said it's 100% a gamble and there are no certainties in life but personally I'd go for it if in a similar position. Continuing to rent is throwing money out the door with no opportunity to get it back, in something you own you're most likely to see the value increase and at a likely minimum get your money back at the time you sell.

I follow downtown development pretty closely as a hobby of mine, my industry has nothing to do with development I just think it's fun to watch it grow and evolve. You can hop over to places like the SkyScraperPage for Phoenix and get a rundown of everything that is planned downtown. This is another good resource as well, https://dtphx.org/development/.

Between the growth of ASU and the biomedical campus downtown along with the medical school in uptown there is a ton of new demand to come in the years/decades ahead.