Even though today’s recession is full of some painful realities, there IS a bright spot, ESPECIALLY if you’re looking to buy a home in Sedona, Arizona.

Top-producing Realtor ® Barbara Baker is a Sedona market expert with the power of RE/MAX behind her.  Barbara writes a tremendous Sedona real estate blog that keeps buyers and sellers abreast of the latest statistics in the Sedona real estate market, both good news and bad.  The overriding message of the blog these days is, “It’s a great time to buy.  Period.  The End.”

In addition, Barbara (and I’m sure several other Sedona realtors and agents in your own neighborhood) is offering terrific buyers’ incentives that make buying a home in Sedona’s glorious red rocks that much sweeter.

See Barbara Baker’s Buyers’ Incentives or check out her Sedona real estate blog.

Have you been visiting Arizona for many years now and have been on the fence about buying a second home, vacation home, or a place to retire? Arizona’s real estate market is falling almost as fast is it sky-rocketed. If you’ve been thinking about buying a home in Arizona, and you have means to buy without getting caught in a loan that will turn you upside down, now might be the best time to catch yourself a great deal. Between foreclosures of houses (even houses once valued at $600,000+) short sales, auctions and other schemes that the banks come up with, you could just land yourself one heck of a deal on a very nice home. We’re all familiar with the events that led to this economic situation, but a local real esate agent in Sedona offers his insight and explains why now might be one of the best times to buy a home in Sedona and other Arizona cities:

In today’s buyers market, timing is everything. Many homes are priced to sell right now. Knowing when, what and where to buy real estate can be intimidating. There is no doubt that the real estate market in Sedona has changed dramatically in recent history. Depending on who you talk to, there are several reasons why the market is where it is today, here are a few possible factors:

1. Home prices were rising to fast and the market could not keep up.
2. The lending industry loaned money to consumers who were not qualified.
3. The supply of homes did not meet the short term demand.
4. The economy, politics, job market etc…

All we have to do is turn on the evening news for another report on real estate and the housing situation we face today. Whatever reason you decide to believe, the bottom line is that we are currently in a period of correction. While this correction period is not the best news for sellers, buyers are in an excellent position to purchase property at a fair price…”

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My parents visited my home in Scottsdale last month and we celebrated my mom’s 60th birthday. Both my parents turned 60 in 2007, making them a part of the second annual group of Baby Boomers to turn sixty. We talked about whether they would ever consider moving to Scottsdale (or Sedona, Flagstaff or Prescott) for their retirement; the benefits being that they could be near their granddaughter and be able to golf, bike, hike, shop and do all the “resort” activities we get to do year-round in this vacation destination my husband and I call home. Plus, they wouldn’t have that 5-day-a-week party-pooper I like to call Full-Time Work that inhibits the rest of us from truly living everyday as though we’re staying at a 4-star resort.

Anyway, while the idea of a “resort lifestyle community” isn’t new to me since I write about that on a regular basis on our travel sites, Sedona.net, Prescott.com, Flagstaff.com and ScottsdalePhoenix.net, it did make me remember an interesting article I read recently. If my parents, who are still quite active in their newly entered 60s, were to move to a retirement lifestyle community, resort amenities would certainly be on their list of wants/needs.

Read the article:

FindArticles – Resort lifestyle becoming key ingredient in baby boomer communities
Source: Public Record, The, May 22, 2007

The slowdown that has hit the Valley’s housing market is spreading.

Home sales are down and so are some prices in central and northern Arizona’s second-home communities. The number of homes for sale in Payson, Sedona, Pinetop-Lakeside and Strawberry has shot up this year as the number of buyers plummeted. As in metropolitan Phoenix, overly zealous homeowners in these smaller towns are cutting prices to sell houses.

Even Arizona’s cooler summer weather to the north hasn’t been enough to encourage the bidding wars among buyers that the vacation-home enclaves saw in 2005.

“Last year, a lot of buyers mainly from Phoenix were clamoring for the same homes in Payson,” said Susan Keown of ERA Young Realty and Investment in Payson, where the number of homes for sale has tripled in the past year. “Some were willing to pay more than what the houses were appraising for. But, she said, those buyers and bidding wars are gone.

That is partly because many potential buyers for houses in central and northern Arizona are homeowners from the Valley who can no longer afford second homes. Some people trying to sell in Payson, Pine and Pinetop-Lakeside have primary residences in metropolitan Phoenix but can no longer afford two homes.

Higher payments on adjustable-rate mortgages and home equity lines are cutting into the monthly budgets of more Phoenix-area homeowners.

Also putting a damper on second-home demand is shrinking home values because of dipping prices in some Valley neighborhoods. Then there are those who want to buy but can’t because their houses won’t sell in the slowing Valley market, leaving them unable to apply some of the profit to a vacation home.

Home listings in Arizona have quadrupled in the past year to reach almost 43,600. Valley home prices have been flat since October. Through May, used-home sales were down 34 percent from last year’s record-breaking pace.

“It’s logical that northern Arizona’s housing market is following the Valley’s slowdown,” said Jay Butler, director of the Arizona Real Estate Center at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus. “A lot of Valley residents bought second homes in areas like Payson and Flagstaff by taking money out of their primary homes. Many don’t have that option anymore.”

Home sales in the Pine/Strawberry area are half of what they were a year ago.

Home prices overall aren’t down in many central and northern Arizona towns, but sales are closing for less than the listing prices, primarily because some sellers are overpricing homes.

“The slowdown here hasn’t been as pronounced as the one in the Valley,” said Cliff Potts of Prudential Arrowhead Realty’s Payson/Pine office. “Prices are holding, but sellers have to be more realistic.”

High-end home listings in Flagstaff have climbed during the past year. And, in Sedona, listings were up 129 percent in May from last year.

“We have already seen some price reductions,” said Ray Jegge of Coldwell Banker/1st Affiliate in Sedona.

But it’s still not clear whether this is the time to find the best second-home bargains in Arizona’s high country. As in the Phoenix area, real estate market watchers are still guessing when the housing market will hit bottom.

“This is prime season for buying in northern Arizona,” said John Foltz, president of Phoenix-based Realty Executives. “I doubt we will see anything definite on how much that market will slow until fall, when demand traditionally falls off.”

By Catherine Reagor, The Arizona Republic, Jun. 9, 2006

Following strong fourth quarter sales, Talking Rock Ranch [a premier golf & lifestyle community in Prescott, Arizona] announced the release of the Pinion neighborhood, including 60 home sites that offer expansive mountain and golf course views. Surrounded by Pinion and Junipers, this Prescott land is located in the northeast corner of the property consists of a variety of home site sizes from half an acre to just under three acres. Talking Rock Prescott lots are priced from the $200,000s. More…

Read more about Prescott Arizona real estate and golf & lifestyle communities like Talking Rock on Prescott.com.

Scottsdale