This Newsflash is our response to frequent questions from clients who wonder if the information they have read or heard on the residential market is accurate. We give you the raw data, just the facts, with a short opinion in the last paragraph.

Market Data:  Toma Partners provides an individual city breakdown because real estate is local and overall market averages can be misleading.  Caution, data from smaller cities varies greatly from month to month because of the limited number of transactions.

Phoenix

• Annual Appreciation: -8.3% (Values are dropping/increasing at this rate.)
• Recent Appreciation Trend: -2.0% (The drop/increase in value is getting better or worse at this rate.)
• 4,625 Active Phoenix Homes Listed For Sale: 47.87% Short Sales, 16.54% Foreclosures & 35.59% Normal Sale.
• 1,894 Homes Sold Monthly: 24.18% Short Sales, 47.94% Foreclosure, & 27.88% Normal Sale.

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Well, it looks like Senator John McCain’s former home at 7110 N Central Ave in Phoenix is in foreclosure with a scheduled date of August 15 and there is currently a short sale pending with a current listing price of $2.5 million. Unfortunately, we don’t know what the pending offer is, but if it is accepted that will be something we can find out at the date of the sale. The current servicer for the loan is Bank of America.

We’re thinking the current $2.5 million asking price isn’t that far off the actual property value. Zillow’s estimate comes in pretty close to that mark also, at $2,537,200.

Full Sale History of the former McCain Home

McCain sells in 2006

The home has had a rocky listing history for years, starting with the McCain’s attempt to sell it in 2005 for $4.25 million and finally closing for $3.2 million at the end of 2006 after 411 days on the market, in what most people would call a seller’s market.

$12 Million listing during Presidential campaign after $900k cash out refinance

Whether the purchaser knew that Senator McCain was planning a presidential run in the future and bought the property on speculation, we don’t know, but they did seem to want to take advantage of Senator McCain’s time in the spotlight by listing the property for a ridiculously overpriced $12 million on 05/30/2008 after a refinance loan of $4.3 million (that’s not a bad cash-out, almost a cool million dollars) in 2007.

After waiting until the end of the year and dropping the price to a bargain $10 million by December of 2008, the owners took a break for a year before re-listing for a paltry $5.9 million in December 2009.

Can’t sell, so try renting for $15,000 per mo in 2010

When they finally realized that no one was going to pay even a moderately inflated price for the Presidential candidate’s previous home in May of 2010 they also and tried to rent the property for $15,000 per month starting in August 2010 while still having it for sale for $5.9 million. It appears like they caved an accepted a $9000 per month rent offer in January of 2011 which was short lived since it was back for rent on 5/21/11 for $9000 per month.

Back on market for $4.9 million in 2011

Perhaps the renters got sick of too many fake buyers touring the property since it went back on the market at $4.1 million while they were in there in February 2011 only to have a price increase of 19.5% the day after the initial listing to $4.9 million – perhaps someone’s real estate agent made a boo-boo.

Finally dropped to $2.5 million which got an offer on the table

In the most recent history, the current owners, Dick & Jane Popple dropped the price to $4.7 million on 4/12/11 while still trying to rent it for $9000 starting in May 2011 while it was also listed for sale. They then dropped the price to $3 million on 6/6/11 and finally to a more realistic $2.5 million on 6/29/11 finally accepting the offer on 7/19/11.

What do you think? Is Senator McCain’s former residence worth $2.5 million to you?