Beautiful Custom Home In Desert Hills -- Just Listed!

La Noches De Las Luminaries, LUMI is here

An evening filled with Dazzling Light Displays and Live Music, a Holiday tradition. The Lumi is put on at the Desert Botanical Garden and is now in it's 30th Year!

We have been in the past and are planning on enjoying it again this year. It is great for adults and older children, younger ones get tired of walking and cold. Parking can be a hassle so come early.

You can find out more and order tickets through the link below.

http://www.dbg.org/index.php/about/news/lumiscoming

Rocky Point Real Estate, Safe Investment?

With the real estate boom came the Mexican real estate boom. I know many people who successfully bought property in Mexico and enjoy it today. However, I always looked at the investment through a different eye, always concerned about the risk. Personally I have not heard of any of the problems I read about today. But the article I read at AZCentral.com helped me understand where that "eye" came from.

"PUERTO PEÑASCO, Sonora - U.S. investors, mostly from Arizona, have poured more than $100 million into beachfront homes, motels and land in the Sonoran vacation retreat known as Rocky Point, only to see their cash swallowed up by Mexican and U.S. developers who failed to build the projects."

read the entire article at the link below:
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/1125rockypoint1125.html

Sold and Closed by The Cameron Team in McDowell Mountain Ranch

16582 N. 104th Way closed escrow. Another success sold listing by The Cameron Team, a Presley home in The Summit at McDowell Mountain Ranch. The Cameron Team is #2 for sold listings in McDowell Mountain Ranch so far for 2007!

The sellers wrote as a testimonial:

"We had a very good experience with Jeff Cameron and The Cameron Team. They took our listing during a very serious downturn in the market, and worked with us to properly position the house in the market and achieve a good sale. The marketing work included attractive brochures, open houses, tours, timely updates on market conditions and price positions, and advice on presenting/staging the house. The team solicited and passed on good, constructive feedback from the majority of realtors who showed the house, which allowed us to improve our presentation. After we received our offer(s), Jeff advised us on their differences and counter-offer strategies, and we achieved a deal that was positive for both parties. Jeff and the team kept in close contact and worked with us to clear all the inspections and contingencies, and to finalize the deal through the escrow process. We greatly appreciate Jeff and The Cameron Team, and strongly recommend them to any prospective sellers as their listing agents"
Regards,
Cliff
Previous owner of 16582 N. 104th Way, Scottsdale, Arizona

Muddy Buddy Sponsors

Attention Sponsors:

Well we have about 1/4th of the donations collected. If you haven't yet sent your check, you can send it to our office:

Keller Williams High Desert Realty

Attn: The Cameron Team

11010 N. Tatum Blvd. Suite 101

Phoenix, AZ 85028

Also please make the check payable to: Living Without Limits

Check the chart to see what your total amount pledged is (click on the chart to enlarge it). We thank you for your sponsorship and pledge, it was a great motivation for Jeff to lose weight and be prepared for the Muddy Buddy event. Ben Comen and the Living Without Limits Foundation thanks you all too.

MUDDY BUDDY EXPERIENCE part 3 to end

Hopefully you have read part 1 and part 2 below, if not scroll down and start from the beginning! Thanks for the support.

...Ride baby ride!! The trail goes up hill. Cool I can do this! This is me, I am the "Billy Goat" as my homeys call me on the trail. The hill gets steep, I am passing bikers walking and runners. This gal pushing her bike looks over and says "good job man". Just then I spin out. I have running shoes, no clips. Normally I would pull up with my locked in shoes and continue. I spin out in the moon dust and am forced to push. I push at a run, I don't where that energy came from, but I go. It’s not far to the top, a left turn around, I remount and ride.

There is a big down hill road. This is why JT put me in this position. Down the hill I go. At first, I rest. Then I realize "why am I here" I hit the peddles and shift into the downhill gear. I peddle hard I pass bikers left and right. I am flying, probably over 30 mph. "On your left" I yell as I pass both bikers and runners again! I scream out, "I can't run, but I sure can ride." A rush of adrenalin as I use my strength. I ride down in to the park area and must slow due to congestion of people. DAMN! I can't get around. I see the next check point and obstacle.

The next obstacle is rope net climb. Probably 30+ feet. I drop the bike and head over. It is steep! Again I push the limit. I climb hand foot hand foot, go, go, go! Many others are with me and I feel proud not to be passed. I hit the top and throw myself over. It is a slide, but straight down. It was kinda scary or maybe I was loosing it. I slide down backward landing upside down. JT is laughing "You should have seen that, that was awesome" he says. Then "let's go this is the last leg". "No way," I say. "I ran first, there has to be two more segments." No, this is it. OK! I've decided right then and there, we made a mistake on positioning for the race. Next year I ride first and work to my strengths. Who cares about one crazy down hill, we need to switch next year.

This time JT stays with me, "no reason to get ahead at this point, we have to cross together." There is a rest room and I take a needed break. Normally the trails are empty. So, when I ride there is relief at any tree or bush. I've been holding it for a while. We continue, but now it's not too bad. A little rest and some flat land. JT is coaching me along. Another hill! I start up and am walking. Not AGAIN! Most bikers have to push up. JT disappears. Event people are around shouting words of support. "Your almost there", "Great Job", "keep going", it really does help. At the top of the hill, JT is waiting. It’s a down hill dirt trail. "Ooh this looks fun!" JT give me the bike, "I know you want to do this downhill, take the bike" he says. OK, so we cheated. It wasn't for times sake - our time was horrible but it was gnarly dirt downhill.

I take off cruising skidding but under control. I drop this hill, passing many bikers and runners. An awesome drop and turn emerges, 2 bikers and a runner congest the trail. I can't get around without risk to the others and myself. The trail is dirt, unlike the rocky granite trails at home. I'll take the hit. But I can't choose for them, I can't get around. So I slow and follow them around the drop and turn. Then more gradual downhill. Well to me, gradual, some bikers walk down the hill. We are entering the home stretch. Too many, the trail runs at the base of a hill, I ride up on the side of the hill to overpass a group of bikers and race for the finish. I am riding hard but we are hitting grass and the last transition to the MUD PIT! I see event guys waiving "off the bike" I slow down and dismount.

Entering the bike area I am confused on what to do next. JT - I see him back down the trail, the runners stop earlier and wait for their buddy to enter the mud pit together. I join him and some guy is taking off his camelback. I give my camelback to Kelley. I think, now this is a great service. Well, Cristy and Kelly, JT's sister and brother in law, were there to cheer us on. We gave our camelbacks and started to the finish.

JT says, "come on" and starts a full sprint. It was a couple hundred feet in the grass to the entrance of the mud pit. Exhaustion is no longer within me. Exhilaration and adrenalin are filling me with fire. We run full bore to the mud pit. JT of course beats me. I slide under the cargo net, into the MUD PIT. We have to go through about 60 feet of mud approximately 10 inches deep. This is the mud pit.

Funny thing, in the morning we went over an scoped out the MUD PIT. It looked gross. It had that foamy chocolate mike like look. It was cold at that time. I remember thinking, I don't know if I can crawl through that. At this moment, I don't even think. I just start swimming through the mud. Head first, I do a shallow dive under the ropes, swimming for the finish. I cruise quickly. I feel JT pull my back. I was smoking him through the mud pit. I hear someone yell out, "hey no pulling." I realize how far a head I am and I surge towards the end. JT grabs again and it actually gaining on me. I am covered in mud. I can barely see. I feel my body being pushed to the side. We have cleared all the ropes, you are required to go under to traversing the pit. We rise from the mud together, like Rambo. JT grabs me again and I realize we are not done. There is to be a victory dance. Wrestling to the finish line, we throw each other down into the mud again. The crowd roars at our wrestling maneuver. We get up again knowing the race is over. WE WON! Well, by finishing we won.

Our time will be easy to beat next year, but we did it. And I did my first Muddy Buddy event. We cross the finish together and headed for the hoses to rinse off our face and eyes so that we can see. Then off to another area where hundreds are showering the mud away. What a day! I am hungry. I am exhausted, I am exhilarated. It was Awesome!! I had no idea how great it would feel to be the Muddy Buddy! My first thoughts are for next year, we will be competitive next year!

I have to express a SPECIAL THANKS to CRISTY AND KELLY for their support, hospitality and most specially for capturing this awesome moment in a Kodak way. Cristy took all the pictures I have shared. It was difficult to express this journey, and without the pictures it would have been impossible.

The Cameron Family Donates to St Mary's Food Bank

Yes, we finally did the turkey thing. Don't get me wrong, we always donate money to charities especially around the holidays. Finally, we got the kids, younger ones, motivated and hit a couple of grocery stores to buy birds. We picked up 9 15 pounders and took them to the St. Mary's truck in front of Albertsons at the Desert Ridge location. It was fun. The kids enjoyed it. I hope to continue this tradition.

Valley Home Resales Jump nearly 20% from September to October

There are still a ton of homes on the market, but we are starting to see light after the mortgage melt down in August. Today we have 47,657 single family homes on the market. Last month 3,610 resale homes were sold, compared to 3,050 for September. Normally this time of year, sales are dropping. This is due to the holiday season and the fact summer is the busiest time for residential resales. It is great to see the numbers reversing to the positive.
I believe the increase in sales can be attributed to a few things. One, after the meltdown, there was a period where mortgages were in short supply and guidelines where changing. Two, interest rates have dropped pretty significantly over the past couple of months and since their highs in May. Three, and most importantly, sellers are beginning to price their homes appropriately.
I have talked to people about prices going lower, my belief is prices are lower. Now the seller needs to be priced correctly to sell. The homes selling are those priced correctly for what they are. I see homes sitting on the market that are 20 to 30% overpriced. They just don't get it.
Sellers needing a price greater than their worth, need to take their home off the market. If all the overpriced homes were taken off the market, we would see home values start to increase. This would occur because:

Inventory would decrease
Buyers sitting on the sidelines would re-enter the market
Active buyers would become more motivated as inventory decreased
Investors would re-enter the market(normally 20-25% of homes in the valley are purchased by investors)

Those activities would increase demand while decreasing inventory, thus bringing this market back in balance. ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS THE OVERPRICED HOMES OFF THE MARKET!

5,000 New Arizona Jobs for October, New Record High

Last month the state of Arizona created an additional 5,000 jobs for a new record level. Today there are 2,737,500 jobs in the state of Arizona. The unemployment rate in Arizona increased from 3.3% to 3.5% and here in the metro Phoenix area it increased from 2.8% to 3%. Given the increase in jobs and increase in unemployment rate, this would indicate growth in the population of employable persons. Year over year the state has created 40,000 net new jobs. This is down from previous years where job growth was around 100,000 jobs. We need to look at one sector for most of this issue, that is construction. Over the past year, construction lost 19,000 jobs. Normally there was gains of approximately 15,000 jobs per year. Combined that accounts for 34,000 less jobs or 50% of the decline in job growth. The good news is the real estate market is picking up and hopefully we will see a decline in the construction job losses in the coming months. The really good news is that the rest of our economy continues to create jobs!

You can read the full jobs report for Arizona at the following link:
http://www.workforce.az.gov/?PAGEID=67&SUBID=151

San Francisco Chronicle

After mortgage meltdown, more homeowners trying to pay down debt

Homebuyers today are starting to sound a little bit more like their parents. As lenders have clamped down and price appreciation has waned, perceptions about homeownership have changed - and so have the kinds of loans that borrowers are seeking, mortgage brokers said.
New products, such as a loan called the CMG Home Ownership Accelerator that is designed to help borrowers pay down debt more quickly, are becoming popular, as the adjustable-rate mortgages that dominated the market for several years are falling out of favor, lenders and real estate agents say.
"There is a shifting perception about what owning a house means," said Catharine Bramkamp, an agent with Century 21 in Petaluma. "For the last five years, it was about buying a home and then turning around as quickly as possible and using it as a piggy bank. Now, people who are buying houses have more traditional goals, such as paying off their loans."
The CMG Home Ownership Accelerator, a mortgage modeled after an Australian program that has been around since the mid-1990s, has garnered interest from homeowners such as Tim Robison, a 39-year-old information technology manager. "My goal has always been to retire by the time I was 50," Robison said. "The only way to really do that is to have no debt.”The Danville resident, who bought a four-bedroom home with his wife two years ago, recently refinanced his mortgage to help him achieve that goal by taking out such a loan. After hearing an advertisement on the radio for the loan, offered by San Ramon's CMG Mortgage, Robison decided to refinance the $650,000 mortgage he had on the $895,000 home. Since taking out the loan in February, Robison says he has reduced his debt by almost $50,000. CMG markets the Home Ownership Accelerator, a term it has trademarked. When the housing market was strong and mortgage money was easy to come by, the loan was slow to catch on, but mortgage brokers and real estate agents say they expect that to change as stagnating home prices and the credit crunch have caused homeowners to reassess their priorities. The CMG loan is designed to help homeowners pay off their debt more quickly by tying together a homeowner's mortgage and checking account, according to Doug Nesbit, a vice president at CMG. It works like this: Each time borrowers receive a paycheck, instead of depositing it into their bank accounts, the money is put into a special account that is tied to the mortgage. As money is added to the account, the balance on the loan falls, allowing the borrower to save money on interest payments over the 30-year life of the loan. At the same time, any other expense paid out of the account increases the loan's balance. Still, Nesbit says that savings can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars and borrowers can pay their loans off much faster. Robison says he hopes to own his home free and clear in just 10 years.
I am looking forward to discussing this loan with you in more detail. We have a 5-minute movie that explains the product in more detail, and we can run a simulation on your specific financial situation to determine how the product will work for you. Give me a call! A twenty-minute conversation could save you thousands in interest and get you free of mortgage debt twice as fast as you thought possible.
http://www.cmgfs.com/home_loans/cmghome/movie/player.html

Equipoint Financial
Mortgage Solutions
Brad Simpson
Office: 623.932.3554
BradSimpsonLoans@yahoo.com

New Listing In Surprise - Surprise Farms

New Listing In Phoenix - Estrella Village

Muddy Buddy Experience Part 2

The way the race starts is in waves. We were in the 4th wave, based on age and gender. In each wave there are riders and runners, riders go first then 2 minutes later the runners take off and then 4 minutes later the next wave begins. Our wave started and the bikers were off. I stood there at the ready line, my camelback was snug and tight so it would not bounce as I ran. I was feeling the excitement waiting for the green. Then it was time. I took off strong. Hey, I can do this, no problem! I had a pretty good pace and I looked around as I was with the leaders. They were in better shape than I. Right on, let's kick some ass. The trail went straight up a hill and then curved around and up another hill. All of the sudden I thought I was going to die; my breathing was out of control and I was dizzy. Guys were passing me. The hill was too much, I couldn't breath. I kept pushing and my pace dropped slower and slower. What is up? Are we that high, elevation wise? I can't breath. My heart was racing in the high 160's. I started to walk. What the hell am I doing, the race just started. I can do this. I caught my breath, brought my heart down and started again. A couple of hundred yards and I was dying again. I can't breath. I reached across my chest and unsnapped my camelback; my lungs increase their capacity and filled with air. What did I do? Next I reached down and unsnapped the tight strap across my belly. More Air!! I limited my ability to feed my lungs by putting the camelback on so tight. You see I hate anything on me bouncing while I run, so I had decided everything would need to be real tight - BIG MISTAKE! I was like a young boxer, going after the veteran. He showed weakness and I went for the kill, only to punch out. Like a boxer loosing the ability to raise his arms to punch, I needed a recover time and none was to be given. I continued on, I have to finish.

I started running again. But I could not regain my composure. We hit the peak and the downhill came. I couldn't help but run the downhill, but I had to be careful. Don't fall, that would be detrimental. Where is the obstacle event and when do I ride, was all I could think of. At the bottom of the hill we went around a fence that forced us slightly into the lake. Another hill?? I started up again, but it wasn't long before I was gasping for air and the dizziness returned. Then I saw it. The staging area, no jogging, RUN, get there! There was a metal frame we had to climb over, that was the obstacle event, then find my bike and I was off.

With a cool breeze in my face as I sped off. It felt great! I check my heart rate, it dropped to 160. I can rest now. NO, I can't this is my strength. I need to make up for my weak running, well my walking. I down shifted and started peddling as hard as I could. The down hill ends with another hill, no problem. This is what I do best. I can gag up a hill on a bike, unlike running. Then another down hill, "on your left" as I passed both runners and bikers, I felt great, pride began to fill me with strength and regain my competitiveness! Cool lets keep this up. What's that ahead the next staging area and event, not yet I just got on the bike! I rode like a mad man. My heart is racing and I am breathing at my max, I can't run again! There is Buddy, JT, waiting for me.

I enter the staging area, drop my bike and JT is yelling at me. In a positive way "Go Cameron, over that wall - come on, you can do it". It was one of those rock climbing walls not too high. Just an extra event, an obstacle to make the race more exciting. I took that wall with ease. Coming down the reality set in, I have to run again! So, off I go. But it wasn't long before I slowed. This was a long steady up hill climb. I was pooped. Just keep moving. Walk and get your breathing and heart rate down, then jog again. Take it easy, keep up the pace. This hill was brutal. Many bikers were pushing their bikes up this hill. I wish I had a bike, this is an easy ride for me. The mountain cures and swings around. I see the people on the higher ridge. What!?!? Still no check point. This is not fair. I am doing all the running. The self pity set in as I kept putting one foot in front of another. I am walking as fast as some are jogging, I feel better and I kept the pace.

A peak! Please give me a bike and still no check point. Dizziness! It is fazzing in and out now. I kept pushing to the top, then a short level area around and check point #3. Woo Hoo I made it!! I am not proud, but I made it. I am dizzy and the obstacle is to cross a balance beam. Another runner looks at me and says, "great now that we are all dizzy". Good, it's not just me freaking out here. I cross the beam and find my bike. Rejoice I am on a bike again.

Muddy Buddy Experience Part 1

I woke this morning to, well pain. It was a chore to lift my legs out of bed. I pushed to the shower and let the hot water wake my stiff muscles. Yesterday, I completed in my first Muddy Buddy Race. Today, I am in the beautiful vacation spot of Blythe, CA. For those unaware of Blythe, it is a border town of 10,000 on the CA and AZ border. We had a little car trouble on the return trip and found nothing open on a Sunday evening.
I was introduced to Muddy Buddy by my good buddy, JT. I have been mountain biking for the last 3 years and it is now a passion of mine. I love it! JT explained Muddy Buddy as a mountain bike and running event where one team member starts on the bike and the other team member running. At check points, the biker drops the bike does an obstacle event and becomes the new runner. As the runner approaches the check points, he does an obstacle event finds the bike left by his buddy and becomes the next rider. At the end of the race, both buddies crawl through 60' of 10" deep mud in the mud pit to the finish line. They must enter the mud pit together. That description of the event was good enough for me and I told him let's go, I am in!!

We had this great plan to train together and be in our best shape. The training lasted a week when work, family and life just put it on the back burner. I continued riding 3 days a week and running a 3 mile course along 105th St in McDowell Mountain Ranch. Until a knee injury sidelined me. In hind sight, the injury wasn't much; it was more fear of hurting my knee at 42 and exhaustion that sidelined the running. I started riding again about 3 weeks before the event and my mountain biking game was on. The goal - ride hard and make up for my weak running.

In the meantime, my dieting had paid off. I lost 20 pounds over the past 10 weeks prior to the event. That is a whole other story that can be found through by blog. Anyway, my weigh in for the weight loss was the day before Muddy Buddy and I had a lovely dinner of broth the night before my weigh in. Where am I headed, well, I was a little weak going into this event. No running and no nutrition added to my weakness. Both JT and I have been very busy. So, we decided to make a quick road trip to Cali, spend the night at his sister's, do the event and drive home. Cool, let's go!!

And so we did, we crossed the desert and went to Claremont. JT's sister and brother in law Cristy and Kelly took great care of us. In the morning we were off to Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimes. It was a rush showing up. There were 100's of people coming to compete. Costumes are big w/Muddy Buddy and many were dressed to the tune. Drag seemed to be big and we saw 3 sets of wonder women. Some guys some gals. There were 80's aerobic outfits, cows with utters, and many other funky outfits. I was wondering how you run, ride and crawl through mud in a costume, but it looked fun! Start the race!

Watch for the next posting of "Muddy Buddy Experience part 2"

Homes Sales Jump 10% last Week

Many of you know, I track the market on a weekly basis. Sometimes it is overwhelming, like seeing a wave come in, I know when something is up. Last March I heard a bit about sub prime issues and didn't think too much about it. However, when I registered a slide in sales for the single family homes in the metro Phoenix area during March I knew something was going on. After registering 1,264 sales for the last full week of February, March slid. 1,196, 990 and then 867; I thought what the heck is happening. It was wave one of the sub prime fall out.
Later this year we were averaging about 1,000 sales per week when wave two of the sub prime hit. Sales plunged to a mere 516 in mid September, but have slowly stabilized at 600 sales per week. Finally a jump. Last week we sold 673 homes for the week. Again this is only single family homes registered as sold in ARMLS (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service). That is not near the 1,100 that would be normal for this time of year, but it is 9.8% jump of last week. This is a great number considering we are moving into the holiday season when sales typically slow, not increase. Buyers great deals are out there, just look and take em!

Muddy Buddy Sponsors

Thank you so much to those of you who pledged in the beginning. Knowing that Ben Comen and Living Without Limits were counting on me, made me push myself past my limits to achieve my goals and lose the weight. My goal was 20lbs, and I did it!! With your help, we raised $6,910.00 for the Living Without Limits Foundation. For those of you who donated (you should be on this list), we will be contacting you with detailed information on where you can send the check, and any other information. Again thank you for supporting me with losing the weight, as well as supporting a wonderful cause and donating to them. Think of how much help we can offer them with our donation. Every little bit counts, and we appreciate all of the sponsors.

We will keep you updated and will contact you with the info. If you need anything from us, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks again, and make it a great day!

Final Weigh In for Jeff Cameron's Weigh Loss Fund Raiser

The 4th quarter come back and Jeff hits his GOAL! I didn't think it would happen. After starting off so well, I moved into a weight loss funk for a couple of weeks. I got busy at work, football started, I had a knee injury and Halloween; all contributed to making this goal very difficult to achieve. However, achievable!
I have to put a big THANK YOU out to Ben Comen, Tom Ferry, my wife Lisa and ALL of you that sponsored me. Ben Comen gave me the "don't give up" attitude and the pressure of letting him and his foundation down. I have to give a HUGE THANK YOU to Tom Ferry, my professional business coach. He introduced me to Ben and gave me the "what are you waiting for" attitude. Funny thing, Tom is by business coach, but he has taught me a balanced life is the foundation to success. Tom was the biggest part of making this weight loss difficult. After following his advice and coaching, I got real busy at work. It does matter the market, a good Realtor can sell homes! October was my best month of the year after February. February was before the first "shoe" dropped in the sub prime fiasco in March. Lisa's support was AWESOME, she planned meals around my diet and was there to hold me accountable when I ventured off. ALL OF YOU I am indebted to. The accountability and pressure you created by sponsoring YOUR hard earned money was AWESOME! Last night I was thinking, "for every pound I miss by, Ben losses $355," that stuck in my head and helped me persevere.
OK, I lost 20 pounds. Now I have to keep it off and go for more. Unfortunately, this proved there is more to go! I am off to California for the "MUDDY BUDDY" race with my training partner JT(PS thanks to JT too). I will update you on that adventure.

With 20 pounds lost and $355 sponsored we have raised $7,100 for Ben Comen's foundation, "Living Without Limits"

THANK YOU ALL AGAIN!

October Jobs Report: Increase of 166,000 Jobs and 4.7% unemployment rate

Blow out numbers. This economy is so resilient. The huge real estate correction is being offset by the rest of the market. Buyers, it's time to step up to the plate and start buying homes! The economy created 166,000 jobs in October and there were revisions to August and September which the net effect was to lower there results by 10,000 jobs. Net net we are talking 355,000 new jobs over the last 3 months. This in a time where there is wide spread layoffs in construction, banking and Realtors. What would this economy be like had the investors not driven housing up so crazily?
The talking heads are putting a lot of caution on this number right now. Only time will tell. Right now this is good news. I look forward to the Arizona jobs report that will be released later this month.
You can read the full article from CNBC below:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/21594317

Final 2 Days for Jeff's Weigh In

Down to the wire and yesterday was the first Halloween since I got teeth that I did not eat any candy! Can you believe that. Well I hit the 230 mark today and I guess it is time to say good bye to solid food. Fast time baby! Got to hit 225 by Saturday morning. For those of you that don't know what I am writing about, I committed to loose 20 pounds by November 3rd. I started at 245, YES, 245. I was actually pushing 250 the week before I began my quest. So, to pressure myself I enlisted those I know to sponsor me. I now have 60 people sponsoring me for a commutative of $355 per pound I loose. The money I raise will go to Ben Comen's foundation, "Living without Limits." Ben was born with Cerebral Palsy. He joined his High School track team and competed in long distance running. His final year of of High School his team won State! Ben however, never won a race, yet finished every race he entered. Not only did he finish, be he did it bloodied and beaten down. See his condition makes it very difficult to run and he falls quite often. His reaction is slow and so he plunges head first at times. It is not too late to sponsor me. My goal was $400 per pound and I am short. Please, anyone can sponsor. Just shoot me an email or post on this blog. Ben is the reason I will loose 20 pounds. I feel better than I have in years and I want to be able to fulfill my commitment.

RETIRE YOUR MORTGAGE BEFORE YOU RETIRE A SURE THING IN CREATING EQUITY!

An increasing number of baby-boomers seem resigned to the fact, unlike their parents; they will be making mortgage payment well into retirement. If you look at statistics, you can see where this anxiety comes from. The average age of a person with a 30-year mortgage in California is 45 years old. Unless these people sell their home or pay off their loan early, their last mortgage payment won’t be made until they are 75 years old! And to pay off that loan early isn’t easy, because the borrower has to make significant changes to the family budget to squeeze in the extra principal payments.
Thankfully, there is now a better way to retire mortgage-free.
Use CMG’s revolutionary Home Owner Accelerator loan to accelerate paying off your home loan without changing your family budget. You simply deposit your monthly paychecks directly into this innovative line-of-credit; reduce your loan balance until you pay your bills. While you aren’t using the deposited money it keeps your principal balance lower, which can save you thousands of dollars of interest over time. The money you save remains in your account, further reducing your balance. So, just by changing where your deposit your income, you can pay off your loan years earlier with no change to the family budget. A recent article in the New York Times noted the arrival of the Accelerator as a viable financing alternative.

“For borrowers who cannot face the prospect of paying more interest than principal over the course of the loan, mortgage lenders have begun to offer alternatives more aggressively.”

If you want to further accelerate the pay-down of your loan balance without changing your family spending habits, consider parking your “rainy day” money in the account. Your rainy day fund is probably sitting in a low-interest bearing savings account or CD. Switch that money into the Home Owner Accelerator account, and the money will immediately reduce your loan balance, saving you even more interest. And you haven’t lost access to your rainy day fund: You can tap into it instantly by writing a check or using your debit card. Until that rainy day comes, however, your cash is working aggressively to help you pay down your loan faster. Which means, even if you’re a baby-boomer, you can actually retire mortgage-free! While this sounds too good to be true, this loan is for real! If this sounds intriguing enough to discuss in greater detail, watch a short videohttp://www.homeownershipaccelerator.com/consumers/promo2007-video.shtml and give me a call.

Equipoint Financial
Mortgage Solutions
Brad Simpson
Office: 623.932.3554
BradSimpsonLoans@yahoo.com

McDowell Mountain Ranch Sales in October

I noticed some interesting trends in the month of October for McDowell Mountain Ranch home sales. First of all, entering the month there were 160 homes for sale and another 27 homes were listed for sale during the month. Through October 11 homes registered as Pending, but the inventory dropped to 152 by the first of November 1st. Therefore, 24 homes sellers gave up and took their home off the market.
What interested me was that as I looked through the activity of the homes that went Pending, I found a trend. 55% of those homes that went Pending also lowered their price in October. Looking deeper, of the 11 sales, I found the following:

2 homes were new to the market, average of 19 Days on Market
2 homes were recently back on the market, average of 14 DOM
6 homes dropped their price in October
1 home dropped its price 3 days prior to October

I have been reporting that I have seen a trend of about 85% ("about" because I have not scientifically tracked it) of the Pending homes I find in any comps I do for a home are new to the market or lowered their price withing 35 days of Pending date. Here is a study of the Pending activity in McDowell Mountain Ranch and I found 100% of the homes Pended in October were either new to the market, back on the market or lowered their price in the past 35 days. I did not seek out this validation this morning, I planned on checking it and reporting what I found. It was a surprise to see the activity back my theory.
What does this mean? Buyers are out there. They are watching for the home they want at the right price. Today's market price. If a home is a new listing and priced right, it sells in 35 days or less. If a home is not sold in that time, a price reduction is required. Once the right price is placed on the property, buyers come view the home. If that is market price, the home should sell within 35 days of the price reduction.

INVENTORY LEVELS DROP BY 500 HOMES OVERNIGHT

The inventory of Single Family Homes dropped exactly 500 homes from October 31st to November 1st throughout the metro Phoenix area. We expect this type of activity as sellers take their home off the market through the slow holiday months. This drop left the level of SFH’s in the valley at 47,143, a number higher than the 46,812 on October 1st. On October 1st we recorded a drop of over 700 homes from the day before. Many Realtors write their listing contracts to expire at the end of the month, thus the large drop offs going into the 1st day of the month this time of the year. Last year we experienced a drop of inventory levels by 20% from October to the first of the year. This year that trend is following, but at a slower pace.