1. Visit the aquarium! There are 2 in the Valley. One shares its position with wild animals, J Wildlife World and Aquarium. See them both, close up and personal.

2. Visit another aquarium! The Valley may be hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean, but desert dwellers can be face to face with tiger sharks, eels, rays, sea horses, an octopus and thousands of neon tropical fish at the Sea Life Aquarium. Where: Arizona Mills Mall, 5000 Arizona Mills Circle, Tempe. 480-478-7600.

This is the first Merlin aquarium to have a 360-degree tunneled walkway that cuts through a massive tank where schools of tropical fish, rays and sharks swim above, below and around visitors.

3.  Visit the Splash Playground at Tempe Town Lake! There’s a one-acre playground for children.

4. It’s nice and cool in the Arizona Science Center! Adults and children will love the exhibits and things to do.

5. And here’s your chance to discover the Challenger Space Center!

6.  Can’t get out of town to fish? There are 15 urban park lakes throughout the area that are regularly stocked with trout, catfish and other fish varieties. Or If you’re a fishing enthusiast, hire a fishing guide for a day, a weekend or a week. Go urban fishing at 16 select parks throughout the Phoenix area.

7. Visit one of more than 50 museums in Central Arizona.

8.  Beat the heat by riding indoor go-karts at several Phoenix locations. D1 Race Factory and SpeedStreet Indoor Race Track.

9.  Stargazing in the Valley. The nights are cooler and the skies are bright! And outer space is waiting for you to discover its secrets.

10. And last, but not least… the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum showcases the state’s geological wealth with sparkling gemstones, prehistoric fossils, and enormous excavation equipment. Consider a picnic lunch at Civic Space Park, where kids play in the grass or splash around in the water features, or Encanto Park, home of Enchanted Island Amusement Park.

Fifteen tons of copper were used in the construction of the Arizona State Capitol’s dome. This is equivalent to the amount of copper used to create 4.8 million pennies.

On February 14, 1912, when President William H. Taft signed the proclamation making Arizona the 18^th state, cameras rolled. That signing was the first presidential ceremony ever to be recorded by movie cameras.

The largest and oldest botanical garden in Arizona is the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Opened in 1925, the park encompasses 323-acres and includes a large range of habitats that can be viewed on a 1.5-mile walking trail. The park is located near Superior.

A roadrunner, which can fly, can “run” up to 15 miles-per-hour.

The barrel cactus can help you find your way home if you get lost in the desert. Because it almost always grows or leans towards the south, it is sometimes called the “compass cactus”. .

Arizona has more national monuments than any other state?

The Phoenix Suns played in the first triple overtime playoff game in NBA history?

Apollo astronauts trained in Meteor Crater in preparation for missions to the moon?

Arizona is blanketed with the largest stand of Ponderosa Pines in North America?

Scheri, a real estate appraiser, had sized up a three-bedroom, two-bath house in Santa Ana, Calif., for $30,000 less than what the buyers offered to pay. A typical deal-killer for a seller.

The agent urged the lender to force Scheri to consider several other properties that could back up the original $310,000 sale price. Then he tried good old-fashioned guilt, telling Scheri her appraisal was going to ruin the buyers’ shot at the American Dream.

“That’s what he laid on me,” Scheri recalled. “And I said, ‘Don’t you care they could be potentially spending $30,000 too much for a house?”

Across the country, agents and homebuilders are complaining too many appraisals are coming in low, scuttling deals.

The National Association of Realtors says nearly one in four of its members has reported clients losing a sale due to botched appraisals. The National Association of Home Builders, meanwhile, said low appraisals were sinking a quarter of all new home sales and argues it’s not fair to compare distressed properties to brand-new homes.

And that gets to the heart of the problem.

Roughly 40% of all home sales this year were foreclosures or short sales, meaning the property sold for less than the mortgage. In some markets, like Las Vegas and Phoenix, they’ve hit more than 50%.

Appraisers determine the value of a property by looking at recent sales of comparable homes. They take an apples-to-apples approach, excluding or making adjustments for certain features, such as a swimming pool. And generally, a foreclosure isn’t used as a comparison for a standard sale.

But in some areas, appraisers like Scheri contend they are only sizing up homes according to the reality of the market, though they concede its becoming increasingly harder pinpoint what a home is worth.

Home prices in many large metro areas, including Los Angeles and San Diego, hit bottom earlier this year and are recovering, data last week showed. Yet there are many neighborhoods across the country where foreclosures and other financially distressed sales are still rising.

“It used to be a very infrequent thing that you did an appraisal and the value wasn’t supported,” says Scheri, who is based in San Diego. “Now, it’s more common than not.”

So, if you’re trying to sell your home in a neighborhood where foreclosures and short sales are predominant, an appraiser could determine your home is actually worth less than what some buyers may be willing to pay.

Part of the problem, critics contend, is that many real estate appraisers are now hired under new industry rules. Designed to limit conflicts of interest that can bias an appraisal, the rules bar mortgage brokers from ordering appraisals themselves, forcing them to do so through a mortgage lender.

Lenders may order appraisals through in-house staff or appraisers hired by outside firms known as appraisal-management companies. But neither may talk to the appraisers about the value of the property they’re evaluating.

The result, however, can mean that low-cost appraisers are hired from outside the area and don’t have the local knowledge to find homes that can be a better benchmark for regular homes.

Chris Heller, agent-owner of Keller Williams Realty in northern San Diego, recently had the sale of a home nearly botched for the second time because of a low appraisal.

The three-bedroom, two-bath house in the Poway suburb of San Diego was appraised for $55,000 less than what the buyer agreed to pay. The seller wasn’t willing to drop the price down to $400,000, but knocked off $20,000 when the buyer agreed to come up with $35,000 in cash.

“The seller is taking less because of the appraisal,” Heller said, noting that almost all of the comparable homes used to gauge the property’s value were distressed sales.

Still, the buyer is paying a premium not to have to deal with the risks involved in buying a foreclosed home or a short sale, which can take several months to close.

So, should distressed homes sales be compared with other homes? Is one inherently worth more than the other?

A new analysis of foreclosure and non-foreclosure sales by Zillow.com found that even when most of the market is made up of bank-owned homes, non-foreclosures sell for as much as 30 percent more. Another study by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies came up with a similar conclusion.

In Las Vegas, which has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, the median sale price for bank-owned homes sold in September was about 23% less than other types of properties, according to the Zillow study.

“There are two markets, two very distinct markets,” said Zillow economist Stan Humphries.

That doesn’t mean foreclosures don’t weigh down the value of nearby homes, although there’s loud disagreement on how much.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies examined home sales over 20 years in Massachusetts and found that a foreclosure within less than 100 yards of a home lowers the price of that home by 1%.

So it appears that in neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates, values for all homes are being pulled lower than in areas where there are few or none. That means you can live in one area of Las Vegas and values can be down twice as much as they are in another neighborhood just a few miles away.

When it comes to appraisals, that leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

Jan. 4, 2010 Associated Press

Experts now believe you should start by looking at a home as the place where you live, as opposed to the investment that is going to bring you financial freedom. One important lesson is to look for a home you can afford if times were to get tough, and at that point search for the best long-term loan you can find.

After you purchase your home, concentrate less on paying off the mortgage and more on using any non-essential income for the following goals: saving for retirement, paying off high interest/non tax-deductible debt, creating a 12-month fixed-expense rainy day fund or investing into diversified investments that carry some form of liquidity.

There are two perspectives every family and business owner should focus on.

The first plan is called the offense… the use of your income directed at financial goals such as buying a home, sending a child to college, and ensuring a comfortable retirement.

The second plan is the defense… in the event of injury, layoff, or premature death, what measures can you put in place to protect against the interruption of your financial goals? According to financial experts, not having adequate insurance coverage and retirement resources are examples.

During this recent downturn, “It’s been all about going upside-down on their mortgage.” This type of worry only occurs when people view their home as an investment, rather than a residence. Experts want us to think of our homes like we do our cars, choosing them for lifestyle and need, not as our investment accounts.

“The myth,” these experts say, “is many people think they will need less income at retirement. The reality is they would want to maintain their same lifestyle and often experience little change in expenditures.”

Experts are urging people to not give away their liquidity by prepaying their mortgage. Instead of focusing on debt elimination, turn your efforts toward wealth accumulation, but without trying to predict the future of the market.

Manage your mortgage. Make sure you have a competitive rate and that you are paying it on time. Don’t think of your mortgage as the lump sum bank debt. Rather, think of it as a monthly bill. In terms of refinancing, pay attention to the net monthly after-tax savings in relation to what the refi will cost and how long it will take to break even. If the refi can pay for itself in less than one year then it’s a good deal.

Financial security has nothing to do with not having a mortgage payment. If you can’t sell your home or get money out of it when you need to then what good is it?  One expert said, “I’d much rather have a big mortgage and a big bank account than no mortgage and nothing in my bank account.”

Our parents didn’t have investing tools like IRAs, 401Ks and 529s like we do. All they knew was to use their house as an investment, so paying it off made sense. The rules have changed, but somehow the mantra didn’t.

Experts Terrence Meyer, Jr. and Ed Conarchy.  Meyer is a financial representative for the Strategic Financial Group, Northwestern Mutual, in Los Angeles. Ed Conarchy is a nineteen-year veteran of the mortgage industry outside the Chicago area. He is also the founder of National Advisors Network, a registered investment advisory firm.

Roof must have 2 year remaining useful life.

Proper drainage away from foundation.

A/C must work, hot water heater must work.

Toilets must flush and all plumbing fixtures work WITHOUT leaking -drains especially.

Must have flooring.

Must have range/oven – often a lender requirement.

All utilities must be on. If not it will be a lender requirement.

Broken windows must be fixed and no bars on windows unless they have quick releases that work.

Any bare wood surfaces must be painted.

No power lines crossing over a pool.

Roof and patio roof in poor or fair condition will need to be replaced or repaired.

Must have adequate water pressure in the house.

Electrical outlets need to work.

There are others but these are the main concern areas. Main concern is the 3 S’s. Safety of the occupants, security of the occupants and saleability of the property.

PHOENIX

Each time Lance and Kelli Thorson thought they had found their first home, someone would outbid them. It’s already happened at least 15 times.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be in a depressed housing market like Phoenix. Buyers are supposed to be able to walk in and get pretty much whatever they want. Now, the Thorsons have taken up a tactic not seen since the heydays of the housing bubble – they are making offers on homes before they’ve seen them, as many as three per day.

“It’s frustrating because we’ve jumped through all the hoops and there still isn’t a reward,” Kelli Thorson said.

In Phoenix suburbs and other areas of the nation saturated with foreclosed homes, low prices for bank-owned properties are sparking bidding wars that drive up sale prices, entice investors and frustrate traditional buyers who make dozens of offers and still can’t land a home.

Experts say the environment is strikingly similar to what they saw at the height of the real-estate bubble.

“This market is about as abnormal as the hypermarket that we came out of a few years ago,” said Jay Butler, director of the realty-studies program at Arizona State University.

Just as they did during the boom period, investors now are stocking up on homes, driving up prices and forcing traditional buyers to the sidelines in some areas, Butler said.

Because they often pay cash and buy several houses at once, investors are attractive to banks trying to shed dozens of foreclosures, he said. Traditional buyers add time and hassle to the process because they have to be approved for a mortgage.

The market won’t stabilize until investor influence diminishes and it is once again driven by buyers who plan to live in the home, Butler said.

The problem is centered in newer, lower-priced communities affordable for young families and other first-time home buyers. They’re the same neighborhoods that were overrun with foreclosures as mortgage rates adjusted and home values dropped.

Homes are now listed at much lower prices than when they were sold just a few years ago. In the Phoenix area, the median resale home price last month was $125,000, down from a peak of nearly $265,000 three years ago. Prices have risen from a low of $115,500 in April, when agents say they began seeing a buying frenzy.

Real-estate agents have been noticing the problem for the past two to three months, said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors. It is especially acute in heavy foreclosure areas such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Southern California and southern Florida, where prices are correcting to levels well below their peak during the boom, Molony said. In those areas, it’s not uncommon for sellers to get multiple offers.

The Thorsons thought they were ideal home buyers. They saved money, have good credit and little debt. But at house after house, the prices are being bid up above the asking price.

They made an offer on one bank-owned house, only to hear a counteroffer that was $33,000 above the initial asking price of $117,000.

Ilyce Glink, February 11, 2009.

As 30-year mortgages continue to hover around the 5 percent mark, interest in refinancing has remained high. But even as some homeowners seek to trade in their adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) for fixed-rate loans, or combine first and second mortgages into one loan with a lower overall interest rate, others who would like to get in on the action can’t make it work.

There are many reasons why refinancing doesn’t work for some homeowners. In an era of declining property values, job loss, income reduction, legislative and regulation change, more homeowners are finding themselves out of luck when they visit their local lender. According to Eileen Fitzpatrick, a spokesperson for Freddie Mac, the top reasons for not being able to refinance include (in no particular order): lack of equity due to falling house prices; low credit scores; tighter credit/lending standards; junior liens (where the total debt or loan balances leave insufficient equity); and lack of employment.

Let’s take a look at the top reasons why refinancing won’t work for many homeowners, even as interest rates fall to historic levels, and what you can do about it.

1. You don’t have enough (or any) equity in your house.

Feel like your house isn’t worth what it once was? You’re right on the money. According to the Case-Shiller House Price Index, property values dropped an average of 18 percent last year. With property values dropping like stones, many homeowners are finding their homes are either worth less than what they owe (called “negative equity”) or are worth exactly what they owe, meaning there is no equity in the property.

If you don’t have enough equity or if you have negative equity, you won’t be able to refinance your home — unless you have a lender that will refinance without doing an appraisal. Currently FHA is doing a “streamline refinance” for its loans that does not require an appraisal.

The federal government just announced it would help homeowners plagued by negative or inadequate equity by writing down the value of mortgages it owns. Watch for information on how to know if you have one of these loans and who you should call for help.

2. You don’t earn enough income.

At the height of the real estate market several years ago, you could tell the lender what you earned — and no one would have called your job to verify your salary.

Today, lending standards are a lot tighter and if you don’t earn enough income, you won’t qualify to buy a home or refinance your existing mortgage, which is a problem these days, given the rather grim economic environment.

If you’re out of work, you won’t be able to refinance unless you can show proof of other income, including renting out part of your primary residence, or having a family member (who has a job) co-sign the mortgage documents with you.

If the problem isn’t really your income (let’s say it hasn’t changed) but the debt you’re carrying, consider paying down (or paying off) credit-card debt, auto loans, school loans or any personal loans that you have. There’s no use keeping money in the bank if you are carrying high-interest debt. This can also help to get your debt-to-income (also known as “DTI”) ratios back in order.

3. Your credit history and credit score aren’t good enough.

As lenders are requiring more income, they’re also requiring a higher credit score in order to get the best interest rate. If you could have gotten the best mortgage interest rate with a score of 680 or 700 three years ago, you might need 720 or even 760 today. (This is also true for auto loans.)

What can you do? If your credit history and score aren’t quite where you’d like them to be, but you don’t want to pass up a chance to refinance and save some cash, consider refinancing with an FHA loan. FHA requires a lower credit score than conventional lenders to get the best interest rates. Find out more at www.hud.gov (where you can get linked to a HUD-approved housing counselor in your area).

You should also work on rebuilding your credit history by paying all of your bills on time and in full (if possible) each month.

4. You’re a successful real estate investor who owns too many properties.

If you’re investing in real estate, even if you’re doing it successfully, you’ll find that the game has changed with regard to financing those properties. While previously you could have refinanced if you had up to 10 properties that you owned, today you’ll have trouble if you own more than four properties at the same time.

Why? Lenders are being burned big-time by real estate investors who stretched way beyond what was reasonable to buy up more properties. Now those properties are worth less (sometimes a lot less) than what the investor paid and the low-interest-rate teaser loan has converted into a higher-cost loan.

I’m often asked what real estate investors can do in this market? My answer: Not much. There aren’t a lot of lenders out there willing to work with real estate investors to finance or refinance their property. And if you own too many properties, you may find it impossible to refinance your primary residence as well.

5. You can’t save enough with a refinance to make the effort worthwhile.

I get e-mails daily from readers who want to know if they should refinance. For some folks, the answer will be an easy “yes.” But for most homeowners, the answer is more complicated.

The big mistake homeowners are making is focusing too much on the interest rate and not enough on how much they’re actually saving by refinancing the loan.

Here’s one easy rule: If you can reduce your monthly payment enough to pay off the costs of the refinance within a year, and you’re going to stay in your house for at least four to six years, then it probably pays to refinance your mortgage.

But remember, reducing your payment while lengthening the term of the mortgage makes sense only if you’re having a cash-flow problem today. In other words, if you need a refinance to make your paycheck last through the end of the month, then do it, even if it means you’ll pay more interest over the life of the loan.

But if you’re already 15 years into your mortgage and it would reset to 30 years, that may not make sense. Try to get a 15-year mortgage at a lower interest rate so that you’re truly saving money.

Some of the nation’s biggest lenders, including Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., are beginning to roll out a new program established by the Obama administration as part of its housing-rescue plan to help refinance homeowners who otherwise couldn’t get new loans.

In February, President Obama announced a $275 billion plan to stabilize the housing market and reduce foreclosures. One key component: a plan to allow as many as five million homeowners to refinance their mortgages, even though they have little equity or owe slightly more than their home is worth.

The program is open to borrowers who are current on their payments, have loans owned or guaranteed by government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and owe between 80% and 105% of their home’s current value.

Home-mortgage rates rose this week, but the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained below 5%, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of conforming mortgage rates, released on Thursday. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.87%, down from 5.88% a year ago. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.54%.

The rollout of the program has been eagerly awaited by homeowners who want to take advantage of lower mortgage rates but don’t have enough equity to do so, either because of falling home prices or because they financed more than 80% of their home’s value and now can’t qualify under today’s tighter lending standards.

Mark Bank, a manager of rehabilitation services in Buckeye, Ariz. , says he can’t qualify for a traditional refinance because the value of his home is close to the $378,000 mortgage amount.

Refinancing under the Obama plan could cut his payments by about $235 a month, says Mr. Bank. “I’d put that back in the economy,” he adds.

Bank of America, which rolled out the program, says it has received inquiries from nearly 200,000 homeowners looking to refinance under the program and has taken about 4,000 loan applications this week. SunTrust Banks Inc., which also is taking applications from some of its customers, says “interest in the program has been good but not unmanageable.”

Many lenders are implementing the program in stages. Citigroup, for instance, says it will begin taking applications for borrowers with Fannie Mae loans and will begin accepting Freddie Mac applications as soon as it has made the changes in its system needed to handle those loans.

BofA and Wells Fargo aren’t currently taking applications from borrowers who have mortgage insurance because some of the details of that part of the program are still to be worked out.

“We don’t have guidelines from the mortgage-insurance companies on how to transfer policies from one [loan] to another,” says BofA mortgage product executive Vijay Lala.

About one-third of borrowers who are eligible for the program currently have mortgage insurance, a Fannie spokesman says.

The Treasury Department recently released a report, which include eligibility requirements to determine which homeowners qualify for relief under the plan. Following are the eligibility requirements as specified in the guidelines:

• Mortgage must have originated on or before January 1, 2009.
• Home must be an owner-occupied primary residence (verified with tax return, credit report, and other documentation such as a utility bill) – this program is not designed for investor-owned properties.
• Home must be a single family 1-4 unit property (including condominium, cooperative, and manufactured home affixed to a foundation and treated as real property under state law).
• Home may not be vacant or condemned.
• Borrowers in bankruptcy are not automatically excluded from consideration.
• Borrowers in active litigation regarding the mortgage loan can qualify for a modification without waiving their legal rights.

First lien loans must have an unpaid principal balance (prior to capitalization of arrearages) equal to or less than:

• • 1 Unit: $729,750
  • 2 Units: $934,200
  • 3 Units: $1,129,250
  • 4 Units: $1,403,400

• Foreclosure actions are suspended during the trial period or while borrowers are considered for alternative foreclosure prevention options. If homeowners fail to qualify, foreclosure proceedings may resume.
• No minimum or maximum LTV ratio for eligibility purposes.
• Loans are eligible for only one loan modification under the program.
• Subordinate liens (such as second mortgages or home equity loans or lines of credit) are not included in the Front-End DTI calculation, but they are included in the Back-End DTI calculation.
• Servicers should follow any existing express contractual restrictions with respect to solicitation of borrowers for modifications.

Applicants will be accepted into the program until December 31, 2012 (the program expiration date), but incentive payments will continue up to five years after the date of entry into the Home Affordable Modification Program. Monitoring will continue through the life of the program.

Keep in mind that these eligibility requirements are simply government guidelines. Avoid the temptation to qualify or disqualify yourself based solely on what the eligibility requirements indicate. Consult a loan modification specialist who works with lenders on a daily basis to review your situation and determine whether you are likely to qualify. Sometimes the only way to determine whether you qualify is to actually submit your loan modification application.

Published: March 17, 2009