Meeting was called to order at 07:00 by Clent Walker. Prayer was given by Art Harrington, the pledge of allegiance by Glen Hammond, the four way test was led by Bill Mosher. Thought for the day by Mark Twain- “Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live”.
Announcement from A.J. that last Sunday they had a great meeting with the Embry Riddle Rotaract group of about 40 Rotoract students. Art said this is the final week for Let’s Make a Deal to get matching donation from the club March 31st. Write check to Rotary.org. Jim Huffman thanked everyone for volunteering for the April 17th car show. Clent announced we will be resuming in person meetings on April 7th at the Hassaympa Inn in Prescott. Donna participated in the grant management training via zoom. Jerry is working on setup for the new in person meetings. Jerry Hulm said the new members should read the assignment announcement coming out so they know what they will be doing at the in person meeting. Phil Goode presented the Viet Nam veterans proclamation to Tony Shaw who is doing well fighting his cancer.
Dan Beyer, Greg Raskin and Richard Hernandez were the SGTS. Dan immediately fined Greg $3. Richard paid two bucks for his goofy jokes, Greg talked to the president of little league but Rotary is not invited to do the snack shack this year. Todd wasn’t on zoom to get fined for that. Greg paid his two bucks along with Todd’s fine. Everyone pay a buck for getting out of bed today healthy and ready to go. Greg fined Bill Mosher for something. Dennis was fined for multi-tasking. Sharon gave $1 for whoever is supposed to introduce the guest. Glen Hammond gave $20 for Tony Shaw who was able to tell a lawyer joke. AJ threw $1 in for introducing Bard as Brad. Everyone paid $1 for not having their pin on. JA gave $5 happy bucks for kids coming, Jim gave $10 for his latest grandson, Clent gave $10 for looking good on Zoom. Donna and Ray gave $10 for finishing their project. Dennis had $20 sad bucks one of the firefighters took his own life. Art put in $5 happy bucks for the 4th virtual zoom meeting for a conference with interact leaders. 133 were registered for it. Richard had $5 happy bucks for completing his PETS program last week. Art was an enjoyable speaker. John Jack LaDuke gave happy bucks. Christy paid for getting her own credit union branch which is the second largest in the state.
A.J. introduced our two speakers. Faye Humphrey, is a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology and Duke University and is a forty year veteran of the real estate industry, from owning and operating her own title/escrow company, being a licensed real estate agent and Arizona licensed real estate broker, as well as an Arizona Dept of Real Estate licensed and Certified Real Estate Instructor, a John Maxwell International Certified Coach, Speaker and Trainer and now, CEO/Owner/Designated Broker, KMF Real Estate. Faye currently serves as the 2021 First Vice President of the Prescott Area Association of REALTORS, 2021 Board of Directors of the Arizona Association of REALTORS and was the 2020 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Prescott Area Association of REALTORS and is currently PAAR
President. Tina Seeley is the Owner/Broker of National Realty of Prescott. Tina has been in the real estate business in the Quad cities for 20 years. Prior to that, she was a school assistant Principal at Granite Mountain Middle School.
Faye and Tina talked to us about the state of real estate. We currently have an unbelievable shortage of inventory in the real estate business resulting in fewer properties for sale. When you have reduced inventory the value goes up on housing. A lot of people want to move into this area. Faye grew up in the deep south so she is here by choice not by accident of birth. Faye loves it here and enjoys serving on the board of directors.
We have unprecedented times in the real estate business right now. 1800 member associates have real estate licenses and they actually have to go out and find real estate to sell. Faye's parents were immigrants from Ireland who came here searching for the American dream of owning land. “Buy land since they ain’t making any more of it” said her mother, a very wise person. Over the last five years Prescott has been listed in the top 10 by national publications as a very valuable place to live. Friends to the west listened and are coming here because they can sell their home for a lot of money and pay cash for a house in Prescott. Folks from California, Colorado, and even New York are coming here because of the political climate and quality of life. Housing report for Feb 2021 listings are down for new properties coming on the market and demand is outpacing supply. Listings are down over 50% for the state and sales are up 1.5%. This is definitely a sellers market with sales up 28%. Active listings are 482 compared to last year 972. Prescott's median days on the market are 21 compared to 43 last year. Prescott Valley is 10 days on market, Chino Valley is 32 days, and Dewey is 10 days. Multiple offers push the buyers above list price of $50,000 and no advertising is needed for an open house. Sellers are putting their property on the market contingent to having something to buy. A two bedroom in Quailwood went for $400,00 and they will be charging rental costs of $2500 a month for 1400 square feet.
We are pricing lower income people out of the market because hotel workers, restaurant workers, etc can’t find affordable housing. We are one of the top 10 states people are moving to. Since folks can work from home they can live anywhere and people are moving for quality of life. All these people are putting a tremendous burden on our infrastructure. Before Deep Well Ranch was started the school district wanted affordable housing but the homes there are now over $400,00. Teachers can’t find a place to live. The answer is going to be 3Dhomes. The college will be building their first 3D home this summer. It is tough for a teacher to stay in this area because a mobile home is going for over $300,000 and then they have to buy the land.
Prior to our Foundation online auction last year I was able to coerce a one hour aircraft simulator ride from the ERAU flight department. I entered the bidding myself just to try and run up the bidding. Sure enough another bidder came in above me so I bid it up but not really hoping for it since I have many simulator rides in the past. I wasn’t so lucky and ended up as the winning bidder. Rather than use it myself I decided to donate to some students at the PHS Junior ROTC class. I met up with Retired Air Force colonel and ROTC instructor Bill DeKemper at the ERAU flight training center along with students Cayden Pederson and Briley Olson. We were given a tour of the facility and then to the simulator building which houses several million dollars of fight training equipment. The boys were given some instruction and were allowed to fly the Cessna 172 simulator and later the Diamond twin engine aircraft simulator. They adapted quite quickly. All in all, we were there for a couple hours and the boys flight flight time was worth well over $1000 at a for profit training academy. We
might see them in a cockpit on a 737 or F35 one of these days.
