Maracopa Market is active

In the first week of 2012 30 homes were sold in Maricopa according to Jay Shaver of The Maricopa Real Estate Company. Considering that we are just coming out of the holiday season, this seams pretty good to me.

There are 259 active listings with an average square footage of 2340. The average price per square foot is $63.59. While the volume of houses for sale is down at the moment, there are another 228 pending listings to come online shortly.

For those of us who have already made the plunge the biggest decisions we have to make on a daily basis is weather we golf in the morning and shop in the afternoon or if we should just soak up the sunshine and Bar-B-Q supper. It can be quite a strenuous chore.

This year I have met numerous fellow Canadians who are in Maricopa on a “Fact Finding” mission so to speak. Looking the town over, checking out homes for sale and weighing the pros and the cons of maybe …. just maybe …. buying a home in Maricopa. For those of us who took the plunge, we can all relate to that. However there is a very distinct difference in the way you feel about Maricopa once you become a home owner.

My wife and I had visited Arizona a few times prior to buying in 2008. We had rented places from friends and stayed for a week or two and in one case we stayed for two months. But on all these trip we were “Tourists”. We were on vacation and like all vacations they eventually come to an end.

We took possession of our Newly built home in May 2008. I came down with a friend and closed on the home and made arrangements for utilities and made sure that everything was secure until we would arrive in the Fall. Then there was the long wait until we were able to come down and furnish the house and get the back yard finished.

We arrived in mid-November to start our first full winter in Maricopa. We were excited and eager to meet our neighbors and get to know the town and area. We soon settled in got our house fully equipped and made it our “Winter home”. It took a little while, perhaps a a couple of months before it sunk in that this was no longer a vacation, Maricopa  was now actually home. Once that realization kicked in a new sense of belonging made us really feel we had made the right decision.

During the summer when we are back home in Canada, family and friends always ask ” so when are you two heading south for holidays”?  It is hard to explain that we don’t go on “holidays” each winter, it is where we spend the other half of the year, in our Home in Maricopa.

So while the real estate market is still in the low state I see more and more Canadians wandering the streets looking at homes, checking out parks, check out homes, doing a little shopping and did I mention Checking out homes in Maricopa. It is that time of the year that we can all really appreciate the warmer weather even for a little while.

So if you happen to see what looks like a fellow Canadian who looks a little lost perhaps he or she is at that stage we were at once, pondering the pros and cons of home ownership in Maricopa. If you have a chance approach them and see if they have any question that you can answer for them. They just may become your neighbor.