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Showing homes in the Phoenix area in the summer time stinks.

It’s hot in Phoenix in the summer. This summer has actually not been so bad. We had one week where it hit 114, but other than that, 105ish has been the norm. But I digress…

I was showing homes a few days ago in the heat of the afternoon. It was 108 degrees. That means that after about 15 minutes in the sun, the interior of a parked car reaches about 900 degrees. OK, it’s not 900 degrees. But it’s really hot. I put a thermometer in my car once when it was 118 outside. The thermometer pegged out at 240 degrees. Keep in mind that water boils at 212 degrees. And it probably was hotter than 240. It gets **REALLY** hot in a car in Phoenix in the summer. (Tragically, there are people–usually kids–that die every year when they are left in cars in the summer.) The summer that Phoenix hit its all-time high of 122 degrees, I cooked a roast and some potatoes inside my car (seriously! Email if you’d like the recipe. It was fabulous. You could cut it with a fork.)

But I digress, again.

So anyway, I’m showing homes to an out-of-state investor. This client, a super nice older man, was having a hard time with the heat. I rolled down the windows every time we stopped, and after a couple of houses, I just left the car running with the AC on. But he was still struggling. During the summer, I always carry a cooler in my car full of water and Gatorade. But I could not get this guy to drink anything! At one point, I honestly thought he was going to die. I actually started mentally planning our route so that we stayed as close to an emergency room as possible. » Read the rest of the entry..

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Wow. Just a few months ago, no one ever called, emailed or sent up a smoke signal asking about Condos. Now it seems like every day I hear condo talk. Investors are thinking about converting apartments to condos. First-time homebuyers (who are rapidly getting priced out of single family homes) are thinking about buying condos. Part-time residents are wanting a condo for a second home. Parents want to buy their ASU student a condo instead of wasting money on a dorm room. Condos-Condos-Condos!!

Francy and I just listed a condo. It was built in 1974. 1100 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. It’s quite nice, very well maintained. The owners bought it for $72,000 a little over two years ago. It’s on the market for $130,000. We got an offer for $140,000. You do the math. That’s not a bad investment!

As the price of single-family homes skyrockets, I forsee a bunch more condo listings and sales in my future. Right now, they tend to stay on the market a little longer than SFH’s and usually they don’t go crazy over list like SFH’s still do–although our listing did, and that one seems to be rapidly approaching the norm.

So if you’re an investor out there thinking about getting into the wild and crazy Phoenix real estate market, be sure to think about condos! If you are considering a smaller home, think condo. If you are a first time buyer, think condo. And you parents out there, THINK CONDO. If prices continue to appreciate at anywhere near the rate they have been, you could buy yourself a condo, plant your student child in it for four years (probably paying less for mortgage than you would for a dorm room) take the tax credits, and sell it when junior graduates–and pay off all the student loans with your equity!!

JT