North Central is indebted to developers

I want us to flashback five or six years ago and remember the pain in our guts when our home values were at an incredible low value and about 60 percent of our home values were under water.  Unfortunately, some of our friends and family members lost their homes to the banks. There was
doubt about how long it would take to recover but the North Central area had a strong turnaround
and although  e are not back at pre-2005 prices, we have come back a long way.  We certainly are in a great location with excellent schools, tremendous restaurants and top retail stores. I feel there is a common factor as to why our home prices have almost doubled in the past 3-4 years and we owe a large thanks to the home builders/ developers who believed in our neighborhoods as much as we did. Back in the 1970s, the restaurant Willy and Guillermo's at Central and Missouri was torn down for new homes, as was the Ambassador Hotel at 4th Avenue and Maryland, which is now a luxury gated subdivision.
In the past few years, two of my clients, Porchlight Homes and Magee Builders, have built more than 30 new homes in the corridor ranging in price from $370,000 to $780,000 and increasing the per-square-foot price to close to $250. Just a few years ago we were lucky to get more than $175 per square foot but now we are creeping up to the $300 per foot prices, thanks to two incredible homes built on Central Avenue and Lamar by Starion Custom Residences, who tore down an old home that sat on an acre. I have not confirmed the exact square-foot price with the builder but I feel the masterpieces he created are worth every bit of a $300-plus-per-foot price. Another new builder in our area, CE Residential, currently has two new homes under construction on Myrtle, just east of Central Avenue, for around $1.5 million. An old home was demolished, making way for these
fabulous homes. CE Residential also built a new home at Lamar and 2nd Street that sold for $980,000.
Another project that I will be involved in will be located at 325 E Maryland, which replaced a 70-year-old home that should have been condemned many years ago. There will be three new homes, soon to be under construction, at that location. There are many new clients of mine who want new homes and are moving here from other parts of the Valley only to buy a new home. I know I mentioned in another one of my monthly articles that change is good, especially when it pertains to our Central Corridor. I will be representing more than 25 new custom homes in our area over the next 18 months. I am seeing more and more buyers moving here from Paradise Valley and Arcadia in order to be closer to work and schools. These buyers will only move here for homes in the $550,000 and higher range that are brand new or remodeled throughout.
 Please be supportive of these  developers as they take us to a newer financial level. Remember CHANGE is good for a  neighborhood and please know that these builders are building homes that have current zoning in place and they want their homes to conform to the neighborhoods in which they are being built.

The Lieb Group
Bobby Lieb
Associate Broker
HomeSmart Elite Group Manager/Founder
5225 N. Central Ave., Ste.104, Phoenix, AZ 85012
Mobile: 602-376-1341
Fax: 602-996-9141
www.centralphx.com