July 2010

Tudor Revival Historic Homes in Phoenix AZ

We are beginning a series of of posts on several of the period revival home styles. Today’s post looks at what is arguably the most popular historic style, Tudor revival. When showing people homes in the various historic districts in Phoenix, AZ, clients are drawn to the often whimsical Tudor Revivals. In Phoenix, we are fortunate to have several historic districts and subdivisions with good examples of Tudor Revivals. At the end of this post we’ve included a slide-show tour featuring over thirty properties from several historic districts in the downtown and midtown Phoenix region.

TUDOR REVIVALS: A bit of history and information.

Tudor revival became especially popular with 1920s suburban homes, loosely based on their medieval for-bearers. Most believe the surge in Tudor Revivals, as well as other revival styles, was was a byproduct of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair where interpretations of European style homes was demonstrated. We believe the overall energy of the Roaring Twenties was equally responsible as architects and homeowners were living out the passion and glee of the times.

Tudor Revival homes are identified by their elevations with ornamental half-timbering, a medieval English building tradition, often with stucco or masonry veneered walls, steeply pitched multi-gabled roof lines, massive chimneys, distinctive entryways and muti-paned casement windows.

As noted above, we mention decorative half timbering, sometimes referred to as false timbering. In European Tudors, as well as other English style homes, it was common to have exposed timbers on the home’s facings. However, in the United States the extremes in weather caused leakage problems. Thus, the timbers we commonly see are ornamental in nature and are not integral with the home’s structure.

Below is a slide show tour of several Tudor Revival Style homes in the downtown and midtown Phoenix area. Most of the photos were taken in Encanto-Palmcroft, Cherry Lynn and Willow with a few coming from other Phoenix historic districts. In general, you’ll be more apt to find Tudor revivals in areas where home building occurred prior to 1934. This is largely due to the influence FHA had on the home building industry in the mid-1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. Hope you enjoy the photos.

If you have an interest in historic homes and would like to know more about them, the preservation efforts going on and periodic tours of these homes, join our Meetup.com group at http://www.meetup.com/Downtown-Phoenix-Historic-Properties/ .

THE TOUR:

Gene Urban & Ron Urban
The Urban Connection Team
602-234-5777

connecting people to the perfect space

Rob Melikian and Vanishing Phoenix on AZCentral

The mission of historic preservation in downtown and Greater Phoenix got a boost today. Robert Melikian and his new book Vanishing Phoenix were featured on AZCentral.com today.

Urban Connection readers know how much we love this book and the fine work the Hotel San Carlos owner has done to bring historic preservation to the attention of Phoenix residents. Today we thank AZ Central for bringing the story to a much wider audience. Perhaps this will be the straw that breaks the preverbal back of developers and short sighted thinkers who do not value our city’s historical heritage told through architecture, buildings and homes.

Emily Garsena, the author of the article, interviewed Rob with a bit of Q & A. Here is an excerpt and link to the entire piece.

Q: Was there a certain building that inspired you to write?

A: The Fox West Coast Theatre on First and Washington (streets) built by S. Charles Lee (in 1930). He built an inferior one in Los Angeles that’s considered by people there a marvelous theater. We had a better one. In 1975, the city bought it. The chandeliers bought for $8,000 in the 1930s sold for $250. They (city officials) wanted to replace the theater with a bus station.

Q: Some historic buildings continue to be torn down. Some members of the community believe the Ramada Inn at Second and Fillmore streets should be protected although the city plans to raze it and build there so Arizona State University can use it to house one of its academic programs. What do you think?

A: In 1956, Marilyn Monroe opened that building. But I don’t advocate saving every historic building. If the use of that building is going to be that useful to society, then so be it.

Q: What message do you want people to take from this book?

A: History sells. People want history. Don’t look at the short-term liability (of preservation). Look at the long-term benefits.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/07/21/20100721phoenix-vanishing-author-architecture.html#ixzz0uNZFvwYm

Congrats to Rob Melikian… you deserve all the kudos possible for your good work and passion.

Gene Urban
The Urban Connection Real Estate Team
602-234-5777

connecting people to the perfect space

CVS Opens at CityScape in Downtown Phoeinx

In a prior post we mentioned that CVS Pharmacy at CityScape in downtown Phoenix would be opening their doors at the end of July. Well… it is happening and we have the details for your enjoyment direct from the gang at Red Development and CityScape. He is the press release

CityScape welcomes the opening of our second retail tenant, the first one on the Patriot’s Square block Monday morning when CVS/Pharmacy officially opens its doors to the general public.  CVS/Pharmacy will become the first pharmacy in the downtown neighborhood in more than 30 years.

Join us at 9:00am Monday July 26th as we cut the ribbon and open the doors to a much needed store. Mayor Phil Gordon will be on hand to welcome CVS to downtown Phoenix and they will have giveaway bags to hand out while supplies last.
A few of the amenities that CVS/Pharmacy will have will be:

• Photo Department

• Full Liquor Department with beer, large wine selection, and spirits available warm and cold

• Expanded coolers and freezers

• Including sandwiches, lunch items and dairy, and ice

• Expanded grocery set

• ATM

• Souvenir Section

The new CVS Pharmacy will provide some services currently missing for downtown Phoenix workers and dwellers. Too bad it is not a locally owned business, but there are few independents left in the US Pharmacy/Sundry world these days.

If you are free at 9:00 on July 26th come to CityScape in downtown Phoenix for the festivities.

Gene Urban & Ron Urban
The Urban Connection Realty Team
602-234-5777

connecting people to the perfect space

Downtown Phoenix Artist Wins Kentucky Contract

Congrats are deserved for local Artist, Al Price who was awarded the contract for a 200 ft public art sculpture for a new arena in Kentucky.

Price, a former school teacher, has created many large scale urban art projects around the valley including a popular piece along the light rail in downtown Phoenix.

The locals in Kentucky are a bit surprised by his selection from a field of 75 applicants since 23 were local Kentucky artists. No doubt, we’d feel the same if an out of town person was selected for a major piece of work here in Phoenix.

Below is an except from a local news organization in Louisville, KY with some response to the selection:

“It is not a slap in the face at all,” said Lori Meadows, who was on the panel to choose the artist. “I think that for every art commission that you do, you want to make sure that you pick the absolute best proposal for that particular piece and space. We don’t’ want other states to eliminate Kentucky artists, anymore than we would eliminate artists from other states.” Here is a link to the entire article.

The 200 foot sculpture will consist of 50 open-metal panels built from curved stainless steel tubes and comes at a price tag of $200,000.

If you are unfamiliar with Al Price’s work, here are a couple photos… downtowners are bound to recognized one of the piece that sits on Central Ave.

Again, our congratulations go out to Al as we celebrate the fact that your art will adorn the KFC Yum Center in Kentucky. Yummy isn’t it?

Gene Urban & Ron Urban
The Urban Connection Real Estate Team
602-234-5777

connecting people to the perfect space

Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture Gets $25000 Grant for Downtown

More good news for downtown Phoenix. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) just awarded Phoenix a $25,000 grant to make an area near the Phoenix Public Market more livable. Here is how the project is described by the NEA folks:

The City of Phoenix will use its MICD25 grant to hire an artist-led team to redesign a city block along a key thoroughfare fronting the new Downtown Phoenix Public Market. The artist/design team, to be selected through a competitive process, will reconfigure the street by reducing car lanes and widening sidewalks and adding built and living shade, transforming a hot stretch of asphalt and concrete into a cool oasis for people. These changes will increase the livability of the desert city by making outdoor areas more amenable to pedestrians.

Mayor Gordon added these comments about the grant money, “This project will bolster our efforts to revitalize Phoenix’s unique urban core as a connected oasis of shaded sidewalks, plazas, streets and open spaces. The project, using sustainable materials, also will complement our ongoing downtown development efforts.”

As I read the grant, it provides money for the design of the project that includes 1 block of Pierce Street from Central to First Street. I have not heard if the grant required the city to fund the actual construction of the project or not. Maybe one of our readers knows more about the construction details and I’ll do my best to find out more.

The grant is one of only 21 awarded by the NEA under their Mayor’s Institute on City Design. Initiatives like this a far too few and highly competitive when available. Too bad we can’t shift 1% of the military budget to enrich the quality of life and art…

So lift your cup and say Salute , cheers and Slainte to downtown Phoenix, the Office of Arts and Culture and NEA for making our life in the urban core a bit better.

Gene Urban
The Urban Connection Team
602-234-5777

connecting people to the perfect space

Sweet Home Deals in FQ Story Historic Phoenix

I can’t really explain it but there are a lot of homes for sale in FQ Story these days. When I searched for homes in FQ Story today for a client I found 14 homes on the market.That compares with only 4 homes for sale in Encanto Palmcroft. Pretty strange but good news if you’ve been thinking about buying in FQ Story.

For those who don’t know too much about FQ Stroy, we have an article posted on our original Urban Team site that has a bit of history.  Here is a link to the article:

Information and History About The FQ Story Historic District In Downtown Phoenix, AZ

If you would like to see what is currently for sale in FQ Story, our famous downtown home search tool is here for you. We created a niche search that show just the historic homes for sale in FQ Story. If you want to see what other homes, condos, lofts are for sale in the downtown Phoenix area, go to our hone search page… there is a link in the navigation bar on top.

Home Currently for Sale in FQ Story… ckick the link

If you would like to take a look at one of these FQ Story homes, let us know. We’d love to connect you to the perfect space. Its our mission in life.

Gene Urban and Ron Urban
The Urban Connection Team
602-234-5777

connecting people to the perfect space

Short Sales and Bankruptcies Can Affect Each Other

Seems like we’ve been writing a lot of articles about short sales in downtown Phoenix these days. The fact is, a lot of the homes for sale in downtown, midtown and north Phoenix. Also, many who want to sell their home have to do a short sale since they owe more than the place is worth.

As part of our short sale education program we found an interesting and scary article on the subject of short sales and bankruptcy. Even if you are not in this situation, the information is worth reading. Knowledge is a good thing.

The article comes from our fiends at Thomson Law Group. They provide a lot of good short sale info these days and helps us, as real estate guys, informed. We send special thanks to Doug Farnham for his valuable knowledge and willingness to share it with us and the readers of Urban Connection Realty. Below is Doug’s latest article:

How Bankruptcy Affects Short Sales & Vice Versa

By now, most Realtors are aware of many of the risks associated with short sales.  Either they know someone that has faced litigation or have read about problems that can arise from homeowners that either faced an unexpected foreclosure or who did not understand their deficiency or tax liability.

Recently we have seen a new issue arise for some homeowners that completed a short sale before filing for bankruptcy.  The issue of concern is that a homeowner may no longer qualify for bankruptcy because the sale of their home lowered their debt ratio and, thus they became ineligible under the means test 11 U.S. C. 707. The means test compares the income against the expenses or debts of a homeowner and determines whether a homeowner is eligible to seek relief to discharge debt obligations under a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding.

Residential mortgage debts are an expense which can be included in the means test. By including the residential mortgage debt in the analysis, the probability that a homeowner can qualify for bankruptcy is increased. By excluding or eliminating that debt, the probability of the homeowner to qualify for bankruptcy is decreased or, in some instances, eliminated altogether. So, if a homeowner intends to file for bankruptcy, a review of the homeowners eligibility under the means test should be completed by a qualified bankruptcy attorney before a homeowner is encouraged to complete a short sale.

Another concern arises when a homeowner completes a short sale and then files for bankruptcy some years later.  Since the lender has up to six years after the close of escrow to file a deficiency lawsuit, it is possible that the lawsuit could come after the homeowner has been discharged from bankruptcy.  A bankruptcy attorney may not include the mortgage loan(s) that was involved with a completed short sale if a 1099 has been filed by the lender or if the homeowner fails to tell the attorney of the loans.  However, since the legal effect of a 1099 filing upon a homeowner’s deficiency liability is still in dispute under Arizona law, it is recommended that all loans from previously completed short sale transactions be included when filing bankruptcy, even if the short sale was completed several years prior (at least until the 1099 issue has been clearly settled by the courts).

Short sales are on the increase which means that it is a market segment that Realtors cannot ignore.  We hope this information helps you to avoid the pitfalls and makes you better prepared to handle these issues.

For questions and answers on this subject and many other related topics please visit our blog at: http://blog.MortgageMediationGroup.com

For more info on short sales in Arizona, we have a site dedicated to the subject. Short Sale Phoenix.com

Gene Urban and Ron Urban
The Urban Connection Realty Team
602-234-5777

connecting you to the perfect space

Short Sales and Bank Owned Homes Offer Sweet Downtown Historic Deals

Have you thought about buying a historic home in downtown Phoenix. In years past the prices made this impossible for many. Now, however, short sales and bank owned historic homes have made ownership possible for many more people.

I just ran a search of homes in the downtown region built prior to 1945 and a number of short sale or bank owned homes were among the offerings. FQ Story has a couple homes in the $150,000 range and there was one in Palmcroft for $295,000 or about the same price it sold for in 2003.

There are positives and negatives to buying short sales and bank owned homes. Probably the most significant is these homes are generally sold in AS-IS condition. As Is, in most cases, means the owner of the home will not be making any repairs to the home prior to the buyer taking possession. This is not the case when buying from a traditional home seller who often expects to make some repairs. We have a page on this site that takes a more in depth look at what AS IS means and you may want to take a look at the post and accompanying YouTube video on buying a home in as is condition.

Lender owned homes, most of the time, do not have many other complications outside of the AS IS issue. That can not be said for short sales though. Short sales can be so complex we actually created a web site devoted to the subject of short sales. For information about buying a short sale in downtown Phoenix please visit www.short-sale-phoenix.com.

That’s probably enough for this post. If you want to search for historic homes currently on the market in the downtown Phoenix area, we have a killer home search tool on the site. Here is a link to the search for downtown homes page.

Best to you,

Gene Urban and Ron Urban
The Urban Connection Realty Team
602-234-5777

connecting people to the perfect space

Buying Downtown Phoenix Homes in As Is Condition

Several of our Urban Connection readers have asked us what AS IS means when buying a home or condo in the downtown Phoenix area. This comes up often when people are buying bank owned homes or short sales.

Lender owned homes seldom offer the option of having repairs made to the home and the majority of people selling their home as a “short sale” simply don’t have the money to make repairs. Therefore, as a home buyer, you will be asked to sign an addendum to the contract that explains what is expected of you and the seller when selling a home in “AS IS” condition.

Your Urban Connection Team has created a little YouTube video that gives offers an overview of the AS IS addendum created by the Arizona Association of Realtors. Below is the video:

Obviously, this is simply an overview of the Short Sale Addendum and does not go into all the nuances and implications of the document.  However, we hope it gives you a broader understanding of what as is means when buying a home or condo in downtown Phoenix, AZ.

Gene Urban & Ron Urban
The Urban Connection Realty Team
602-234-5777

Information About HAFA and Short Sales in Phoenix

Short sales are big news in the real estate industry these days. With a large number of people owning more on their home/condo than its worth, folks are pondering a short sale as one of their options. This is evident in the downtown region with about 1/4th of all active listings being short sales.

The US Government, for better or worse, has adopted a program called HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative) to help streamline the short sale process. Some of our readers have emailed asking: What is the HAFA program?  We are here today to answer that question.

In case you don’t know. the Urban Connection team launched a site dedicated to information about short sales last Fall. We have well over 100 pages of short sale articles, short sale news, an FAQ section and much more. We just added a page describing the HAFA program and its guidelines. Below is a link to that piece so you can be an expert on the HAFA program and impress your friends and coworkers with your in depth knowledge on the subject.

What is the HAFA Program for short sales in AZ?

If you know someone who needs more information about short sales, please know we are there for them. Short sales are not for everyone and there are legal and tax issues that need to be explored before moving forward with this option. We would be delighted to help navigate the short sale waters.

Gene Urban & Ron Urban
The Urban Connection Team
602-234-5777
Gene@UrbanTeamAZ.com

connecting people to the perfect space

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