Posted By Virgil Bierschwale [1] Quarterly Sedona Real Estate Update –
Quarterly Sedona Real Estate Update [2] – sedonaeye.com [3]
Keep America At Work – Founded 5 Nov 2007:
http://keepamericaatwork.com

Metro Phoenix has a “shadow inventory” of nearly 100,000 homes, the kind that market watchers fear will flood the region’s long-suffering housing market and drive prices down further. Homes in Yavapai County slid another 9.8 percent in value. Pima County, which came in at the 20th largest annual decline, posted an 8.7 percent year-over-year drop with a 4.8 percent decline in values in just the last quarter.

Other Arizona counties measured include Coconino where values slid 7.7 percent from the same time last year, with a 7.5 percent drop in Mohave County.

The slow return of millions of REO homes to the market will keep home prices from recovering. RealtyTrac’s James J. Saccio warns: “At the first quarter foreclosure sales pace, it would take exactly three years to clear the current inventory.

Paul F. Miller
Phoenix, Arizona

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your interest in SB 1259. Because SB 1259 was my bill, I thought it best if I was the one who responded to you. I ran the bill in the hopes of providing transparency to homeowners. Another troubling aspect about the lack of chain of title information is … what happens if someone sells their house to another person? The keys are handed over, but are you transferring the title as well?? When the lenders packaged and securitized these loans they separated the “notes” and the deeds of trust, violating over a 100 years of property law. The fact that nobody can prove chain of title right now is downright scary. And it is a big elephant in the room that has some property law attorneys dumbfounded. Title insurance may cover some of the future losses, but eventually title insurance will become insolvent. This is a problem that needs to be solved before it causes a future housing meltdown round #2. That being said, this was a very simple bill that would have required a homeowner to be given information. The Senators understood it. It passed 28-2. However, I was told the bill was DOA in the House before it even got out of the Senate. It was “double-assigned” meaning it had to pass two committees instead of just one. In addition, the Chair of the Banking and Insurance committee in the House did not like the bill and was not going to give it a hearing, meaning the bill was dead. By the way, it is completely within the right of any committee chair to kill a bill. Did I like that this happened to my bill – no. But, Rep. McClain did nothing ethically wrong. Committee chairs are completely within their right to hold any bill they do not wish to hear.

In the meantime, there is a section in my district called Rio Verde where they need fire service and a compromise was finally agreed upon that was 6 years in the making. The deadline to introduce new bills had already passed, meaning they had to find a bill to use as a “striker”. SB 1259 was chosen because it was otherwise already dead. The lobbyists representing the Fire Districts and Rural Metro were able to salvage a dead bill and turn it into a bill to give some much needed relief to a part of my district.

Sorry for the lengthy response. But I wanted to give you the whole story from start to finish.

Thanks again for your interest on SB 1259. The good news is that a very similar bill just passed in Arkansas and their Governor has already signed it into law. I will be watching this summer to see what happens once the Arkansas law goes into effect. I hope they are successful and it can be copied in other states. I attached the link below.

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/arkansas/mcdaniel-details-effect-of-foreclosure-info-bill-apx-20110412

Michele Reagan

Senator Michele Reagan
Chair, Economic Development
District 8
Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Rio Verde

what’s the story about remax and the old wachovia property

Paul – SB1259 became a strike-everything bill for an entirely unrelated subject. I searched for any other bills that created the same statute, but did not find anything that was passed. If I find out anything else, I will pass it along. Thanks. Jeff …

Paul Miller, Phoenix

Buried deep in the bowels of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a provision to impose a 3.8% tax on real estate transactions. Proceeding without regard to Federal Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling that the health care law is unconstitutional the Obama administration appears to be pushing ahead with implementation of the real estate tax scheme.

The Tulsa World reports that County Assessor Ken Yazel has come under fire for comments made last month during the Tulsa County Republican Convention. Mr. Yazel told the convention that the U.S. Census Bureau had asked his office for information that he believed could be used to help create a data base for collection of a 3.8% real estate sales tax. The steadfast assessor isn’t backing down from his statement.

“I don’t regret saying that,” Yazel said recently. “As far as I’m concerned, this is an intrusion on the Assessor’s Office. But the big question to me is, why are you asking for it?”

Yazel said his office received a letter a few weeks ago from the Census Bureau seeking information about land parcels. The request was something neither he nor his staff had seen before, Yazel said.

“We scratched our heads and began to ask ourselves what this could be about,” Yazel said. “I also inferred that in Obamacare there is a 3.8% tax, and they have to have a baseline to do that.”

Mr. Yazel has wondered about the timing of the request and has expressed concern about the underlying motivation for the data collection.

The letter, dated March 7, 2011, states that the Census Bureau is conducting a study to determine “the feasibility of collecting and producing national statistics on taxable property values.”

It goes on to request eight pieces of information, including the gross assessed value, owner’s name and annual tax bill for all parcels on Tulsa County’s 2009 assessment roles.

The county was selected for the voluntary study as a sample unit for similar-size entities to give the Census Bureau a reliable picture of the entire country, the letter states.

U.S. Census Bureau spokesperson Tom Edwards claims that he was unaware of the letter in question. Edwards did say that the bureau collects data from local government agencies in order to compile national property tax estimates.

In an email, Edwards said “there would be no way to ever attach that figure to any individual.” That sounds a bit suspicious considering that the request asked for “the gross assessed value, owner’s name and annual tax bill.”

According to FactCheck.org ( if they are to be believed) the 3.8% real estate transaction tax would only apply to individuals earning more than $200,000 per year or couples earning $250,000 per year, but Yazel’s concerns are well worth noting. The good citizens of Tulsa County can be thankful that Ken Yazel is on the job and paying attention and that goes for the rest of us too.

AZ SB 1259 Passes in Senate | Foreclosure Industry

Feb 16, 2011 … This a GREAT news for Arizona homeowners. It’s going to get much tougher for the banks to foreclose on your homes. Arizona SB 1259 passed in…

Thank you.

Paul F. Miller
Phone 602-228-2357