The Dealmaker: 1/26/2017

Land purchased for upcoming Gilbert medical campus. “[CRE development firm] Irgens completed the $17 million acquisition of four acres of land for [the] upcoming [Spectrum Medical Commons, which] is already 65 percent pre-leased…. [Located ‘near Val Vista Drive and the 202 SanTan Freeway,’ it] will be the first new multi-tenant leasable medical facility in the area developed since 2010.” View the rendering and get further deal and design details at AZRE. http://bit.ly/2kxFyFr

Study: Planned 2,510-acre motorsports destination expected to bring in $1.2 billion. Not to mention “15,000 jobs,” according to an economic impact study by Elliott D. Pollack & Company. “‘Casa Grande and the State are going to begin benefiting the day we break ground [on Attesa] and the impact is only going to grow going forward,’ stated Pat Johnson, president of Danrick Builders.” Get more project estimates and view an awesome rendering depicting Attesa’s “tracks, hotel and convention center, industrial and residential parks [and] private airstrip” — in AZ Business Magazine. http://bit.ly/2kxCq0k

Arizona Ways and Means committee hears Government Property Lease Excise Tax (GPLET) Bill HB 2213. “[The] committee… indicated there will be a stakeholder process…. Tucson’s economic development was cited as a positive resulting from the use of GPLET’s by Kathy Senseman… [The city] has seen 136 million in growth come into its downtown from GPLET’s, she said. Many projects would not have received funding without GPLET, Senseman said and asked to be included in the stakeholder process.” For more on this see Callan Smith’s coverage in Rose Law Group Reporter. http://bit.ly/2j90K8n

Home price gains still above 6% year-over-year. Jann Swanson has the latest figures from FHFA’s Housing Price Index. Compare the data to what “[a]nalysts polled by Econoday” projected, plus get a breakdown by census division, in Mortgage News Daily. http://bit.ly/2k5xRt7

Analyst says mortgage market is broken. “Dick Bove of Rafferty Capital Markets warned that the mortgage markets… are in ‘more disarray than they were in 2008.” He says that “the mortgage market… is… causing an impact on the ability to sell houses, and through that, the economy.” And the “three key reasons… why [Bove] thinks the mortgage market has broken down”?  Find out in this report from Yahoo Finance. http://bit.ly/2k7R9hH

WHAT’S IT GONNA TAKE!?! – First-time buyers face more tough times. “‘Constrained inventory in many areas and climbing rents, home prices, and mortgage rates means it’s not getting any easier to be a first-time buyer,’ says Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®.” Nav to REALTORMag for what Yun says it’s going to “take… for first-timers to make up a greater share of the market.” http://bit.ly/2kxuTyK

Jump in rates doesn’t deter homebuyers, as mortgage applications increase 4%. (Obviously, great news. But good luck trying to square it with the Yahoo Finance “mortgage market is broken” piece above.) MBA vice president of research and economics, Lynn Fisher: “Although it is still early in the homebuying season, purchase activity remains on par with a year ago…” See what she says is “helping to offset the increase in interest rates,” in this report from CNBC. http://bit.ly/2kxzeBY