The Search Goes On

I already wrote about the short time of buyer’s remorse I went through before going ahead with our Scottsdale condominium purchase.  Fortunately, it was short lived and I kept thinking about the investment value of our purchase.

Once again, we were surprised we could afford to purchase anything in Scottsdale, AZ and the reason was because of the recession we were in which affected (and caused) real estate prices to drop throughout most of the nation.  Arizona was hit very hard and in my opinion was caused by over building because there was a rush of buying in the state.

Baby boomers were retiring and moving to this warm, dry climate.  Californians were moving to Arizona as it was more affordable.  A lot of Canadians purchased here as well as other foreign buyers from different countries.  But new construction outnumbered the ready, willing and able buyers as our economy tanked.

Some areas were hit harder than others.  California’s prices plummeted as well as the Phoenix area, Las Vegas and Florida, among others.  Detroit, MI was hit hard because of the faltering auto industry.  I am still seeing declining prices in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, IL.  Although we don’t feel we were hit quite as hard as some of the aforementioned areas, I am seeing prices cut on some properties by $100,000 and more in northern IL. 

So I knew that if we did not go forward with this purchase we would regret it down the road.  I am not a gambler and purchasing a property that we were not planning on renting out was still something I was having a difficult time swallowing, I knew we had the option to rent it if we wanted to and that made me feel better.

So the search was on and getting very close.  My fear made way for the excitement of shopping for a Scottsdale condominium.