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Arizona Daily Sun


Townhouse and condo sales are dominating the summer real estate season.

Second quarter sales figures show a sharp spike in the number of condos and townhomes sold, up 90 percent over last year's figures during the same quarter.

Three large condo conversions projects helped drive down the median price for the townhouse/condo market. Median sale price was $197,000 for the second quarter of 2007, according to figures from Northern Arizona Association of Realtors' Multiple Listing Service. This represents a 26 percent drop in sale prices for the second quarter of 2007 when compared to the same time period last year.

Stephen Brighton, a Realtor with Century 21 Metro Alliance, said that last year, townhomes primarily dominated sales in the condo and townhouse segment of the real estate market.

Brighton said as condo conversion projects came online last fall, the converted apartments began to outsell townhomes. He said the condos generally have lower prices than townhomes.

The single-family detached house market also saw a 2 percent decrease in median sales price compared to last year's second-quarter figures.

The number of single-family homes sold slowed over last year's figures, down 22 percent for the second quarter compared to last year. Second-quarter sales totals for single-family houses this year were 205 compared to 2006's totals of 263 houses sold.

Median sale price for single family home is currently about $377,000.

NOT AN ILLUSION: A TACO BELL NEXT TO A TACO BELL

Drivers on South Milton Road may be seeing double this fall as construction crews build a new Taco Bell alongside the existing Taco Bell.

Officials with Taco Bell confirm the company is building a new restaurant to replace the aging restaurant in an adjacent parking lot.

Cost of remodeling the existing location to the company's "Bold Look," the latest architectural design for the fast food chain, exceeded the price of building a new location.

Company officials expect the new Taco Bell will be up and running later this fall. Once the new location is functioning, the older location will be demolished and made into a parking lot.

GROUPS BEGIN TO LINE UP FOR NAU CONFERENCE CENTER

Groups are beginning to book the High Country Conference Center for conferences next year even as construction continues to shape the 37,000 square-foot center.

Scheduled to open in the spring of 2008, the conference center will be able to accommodate groups ranging from 200 to 1,000 participants. Missouri-based Drury Hotels is building a 150-room hotel adjacent to the conference center.

Major bookings to date include: Stabilizing Indigenous Language Symposium, Society of Women Accountants, Transportation Administrators of Arizona, Edward Jones Investments, and W.L. Gore and Associates holiday event.

GATED COMMUNITY BREAKS GROUND IN WILLIAMS

Developers in Williams have recently broken ground on a private, gated community named Escalante at Williams Mountain.

Built on 240 acres off Route 66, the master-planned community will build a total of 280 homes catering to high-end buyers.

Officials did not speculate on pricing for homes and expect to begin selling homes early next year.

The developers will build a new well system tapping into the Red Wall aquifer. The 3,700-foot well will feed directly into the water supply for the city.

J. Ferguson can be reached at 556-2253 or jferguson@azdailysun.com.

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All comments will be reviewed before being posted and we reserve the right to delete any comments that may contain profanity, name-calling and/or libelous statements. We also reserve the right to run comments in the printed Arizona Daily Sun. Otherwise, have a great conversation!

Ann Heitland wrote on Jul 23, 2007 8:04 AM:
" Further to yesterday's comment, between June 1 and this a.m., there were 219 closed sales for Flagstaff addresses (according to MLS data) of which only 79 (or 36%) were identified as condos/townhomes. Especially given the introduction of the apartment conversions as an entirely new, low-priced condo product this year, I wouldn't call that dominance. But, love 'ya, Steve and Joe. "

Ann Heitland wrote on Jul 22, 2007 7:43 PM:
" My other quibbles with the article are the headline and the word "dominate" -- that implies too much. "


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