A NASCAR driver, co-founder of a mortgage lender, interior designers, a former U.S. Senate candidate and Arizona restaurateurs were among the buyers and sellers of metro Phoenix’s priciest home sales in early April.
$10,400,000
Dark Wash LLC paid cash for a 7,375-square-foot home in north Scottsdale’s Silverleaf community. The house with four bedrooms and 6 ½ bathrooms is located on almost five acres. It comes with an office, a game room, an exercise room, a butler’s pantry, a 1,000-bottle wine cellar, a wet bar and multiple fire pits outside. The Stuart Living Trust sold it. Tracey Gray of Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing.
$6,800,000
Saguaro 65 LLC paid cash for a 7,000-square-foot Paradise Valley home with six bedrooms and 5 ½ bathrooms. The house with views of Mummy Mountain comes with rustic wood-beamed ceilings, two kitchen islands, a bar, a wine room, a state-of-the-art movie theater, an outdoor putting green and a fire pit. The John and Christina Kresevic Trust sold it. He co-founded JFQ Lending.
$6,495,000
The Lynch Family Trust paid cash for a 7,538-square-foot Paradise Valley mansion with four bedrooms and six bathrooms. The house includes a lounge bar, a wine cellar, a library, a huge movie theater, a kitchen with dual dishwashers and quartz countertops, a yoga room, and a primary suite with a fireplace and two bathrooms. James Lamon, founder of DEPCOM Power and former U.S. Senate candidate for Arizona, was the seller.
$5,983,320
Brenda and Christopher White paid cash for a Paradise Valley home near Mummy Mountain. The house wasn’t listed for sale. Baja Rosewood LLC, led by NASCAR racecar driver Casey Mears and his wife Trish, sold it.
$5,000,000
Garrett Loomis and Eric Jimenez, owners of Busted 2 Bangin Home Décor, bought a 6,938-square-foot home in north Scottsdale’s Estancia community. The European countryside-style house with four bedrooms and 5 ½ bathrooms overlooks the ninth hole of a golf course and has views of Pinnacle Peak Mountain, several patios and an outdoor fireplace. The Patricia Taylor Trust sold it.
$4,822,335
Arizona restauranteurs Mark and Lisa Shugrue paid cash for a 4,526-square-foot house in the Phoenix side of the Arcadia neighborhood. The couple owns restaurants in Sedona and Lake Havasu. Their Phoenix home has five bedrooms, 4 ½ bathrooms, views of Camelback Mountain, Italian marble countertops, a secret pantry, a gym, an office and a backyard with a heated pool and space for a sports court. Joseph and Lindsey Dies were the sellers.
Reach the reporter at catherine.reagor@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8040. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @CatherineReagor.
A new community in Surprise will sprout 795 homes with prices starting in the high $300,000s.
Meritage Homes’ 227-acre development called Paloma Creek will also have the biggest amenity center it has built so far, with a pool, an outdoor kitchen, a playground, a fire pit, a basketball court and fitness and community centers.
Located near West Happy Valley Road and 163rd Avenue, the community’s houses will range in size from about 1,200 square feet to more than 3,000 square feet. Prices range from $380,000 to about $450,000.
Homes are under construction and models are open in Paloma Creek. Sales started last month.
The median home price in Surprise is $445,000, according to Realtor.com. Metro Phoenix’s median price is $430,000.
“Paloma Creek offers homebuyers well-appointed, energy-efficient homes at an affordable price,” said Jamie McAndrew, vice president of sales for Meritage in Phoenix. “We look forward to welcoming buyers to the community and helping them achieve their goal of homeownership.”
The houses will include spray-foam insulation, Low-E windows, air infiltration systems and ENERGY STAR-certified appliances.
New homes are drawing more Valley homebuyer attention because of the short supply of existing houses. Also, many home builders offer mortgage-rate buydowns for buyers.
Reach the reporter at catherine.reagor@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8040. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @CatherineReagor.
Ohio homebuilders are pushing state lawmakers to eliminate local zoning referendums, create a tax-abatement program that doesn’t require school-board approval, and other policies that would make it easier for companies to build more homes.
They say the lack of new homes is slowing growth in central Ohio and that builders are not meeting demand statewide.
“For the last 15 years in central Ohio, we’ve underbuilt,” said Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of the Columbus Partnership economic development organization. “Supply and demand are just out of balance.”
More:Columbus-area home prices top record high for 2023
The Building Industry Association of Central Ohio’s report, “Ohio Housing Policy White Paper: Strategies to Address Ohio’s Housing and Economic Challenges,” was presented Wednesday morning at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
It recommends several policy changes. Among them:
- Create a Governor’s Housing Council that would include developers, local government, business and community leaders who would advise the governor on how Ohio can address the housing crisis, establish housing as a statewide concern, and adopt a comprehensive strategy for housing development.
- Regulate small, non-limited home rule township zoning at the state level that would put zoning in the hands of county government.
- Enact state legislation that permits residential development where retail zoning now exists.
- Create a new Ohio Housing Infrastructure Fund of $250 million to offer competitive grants for large and small cities to build dense residential projects.
- Increase the amount of funding from $100 million a year to $400 million for the state’s Transformational Mixed Use District Program.
- Eliminate referendums for zoning decisions.
“Local zoning decisions in Ohio involve a substantial amount of time, public input, public hearings, and ultimately a vote by local government officials,” the paper says. “Permitting a referendum vote on the zoning decision among voters, the majority of which will not have access to any of the facts related to the zoning decision, creates an unpredictable business model for the creation of residential development.”
The report said that Indiana, Tennessee, and Texas do not use referendums for local zoning decisions, and that 22 states do not have any initiative or referendum process.
“There are simply too many boxes to check to get a house built in central Ohio,” said Jon Melchi, executive director of the central Ohio BIA.
The report, prepared by The Montrose Group LLC, a Columbus-based economic development and lobbying company, said central Ohio needs to build 18,000 homes and apartments a year to keep up with demand but is taking out only 13,000 permits, which drives up housing costs.
“We need housing of all stripes and shapes in Ohio,” Melchi said.
The lack of new homes, the report claims, contributed to central Ohio’s population growing 17.4% over the past decade, lagging metro areas of Charlotte (56%), Austin (40%), Nashville (28%) and Indianapolis (21%).
More:As Columbus booms, its suburbs limit affordable housing options
The group also wants the state to give cities and counties the power to sign off on residential tax abatements without school board approval.
“News reports are full of local school boards denying approval for large-scale economic development projects all over the state of Ohio,” the report says. “In some cases, these school districts are in Licking County and are denying residential development that could build workforce housing needed for workers at the planned Intel facility.”
The report also recommends extending and expanding tax credit programs, creating an Ohio Rural Housing Loan Program, and streamlining Ohio’s property tax appraisal system.
Some communities have also said a lack of housing is hindering economic development efforts. In October, the Union County Chamber of Commerce released a statement that the county had more than 8,300 unfilled jobs and an average home-sale price of more than $430,000.
“Ultimately, if employers cannot find workers to fill these positions, the community decides to slow housing development, and the home sale price point stays at $430K+, our community’s quality of life will be in peril,” the county chamber said.
Meanwhile, Columbus officials are in the midst of revamping the city’s 70-year-old zoning code that would make it easier for developers to build housing, and which concerns some who believe they won’t have enough of a say as to what is built in their areas. The city has also expanded tax abatements for new housing throughout the city, instead of in blighted pockets.
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