in phoenix canadian couple enjoys love affair with second ......the other is trilogy at vistancia, a...

9/24/13 Canadian couple enjoys love affair with second home in Phoenix

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The entrance into the Encanterra community in Arizona includes w ater features, w ith the San Tan Mountains in the background.

The entrance into the Encanterra community in Arizona includes w ater features, w ith the San Tan Mountains in the background.

Right: Janet and Rob Farnham have ow ned a home for more than three years in Arizona’s Encanterra community, w hich is just

southeast of dow ntow n Phoenix.

Canadian couple enjoys love affair with second homein Phoenix

BY BARB LIVINGSTONE, POSTMEDIA NEWS SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Every six to eight weeks, Rob and Janet Farnham leave their design business and head south to

“heaven” in the San Tan Valley of Arizona.

When they drive in through the gates of the Encanterra community, just southeast of downtown

Phoenix, “and it opens up to the golf course, the San Tan Mountains, the clubhouse ... I feel I am

home. I am back in heaven,” Rob says.

Owners of The Design Studio in Alberta, the couple bought a home in Encanterra three-and-a-half

years ago after selling another home they owned in the Phoenix area.

They looked at the project on the advice of a friend, thought it was impressive and, with the market at

bottom prices, made a deal the next day. Encanterra is one of two gated master-planned communities

in the Phoenix area developed by Shea Homes Active Lifestyle Communities.



The other is Trilogy at Vistancia, a development in Peoria, northwest of Phoenix, which is a 55-plus

community, although 20 per cent of owners can be ages 45 to 54.

Encanterra is the division’s first venture into exclusive country club living and is comprised of both an

all-ages community (though most of the buyers have been baby boomers) and a separate age-

restricted (55-plus) Trilogy neighbourhood within the development.

It opened for sales in 2006 and full residential build-out is slated for 2020 when the 302-hectare

gated residential community is expected to have more than 2,400 homes.

And for the existing Encanterra homeowners — 50 per cent of whom are Canadian — everything is in

place for the second homebuyer.

There is a private golf course designed by Tom Lehman, where most holes are parallel to each other

and few residences are actually on the course.

And within the 18,000-square-foot La Casa resort club is a luxurious spa, fitness centre, four

restaurants with expansive outdoor patios, indoor and outdoor pools and community meeting areas.

At Vistancia, there is a public golf course designed by Gary Panks (the course was awarded one of

Golf Digest’s 5-star best places to play golf in 2008), with a 35,000-square-foot community centre that

has everything from an athletic club, to a luxury spa and a restaurant.

About 19 per cent of the homeowners are Canadian.

Homes at Vistancia start in the mid $200,000s, and there are three home collections with 13 different

floor plans, ranging from 1,437 to 3,096 square feet. When completed, the 400-hectare community

will have about 2,400 homes.

Hal Looney, Arizona area president of Shea Homes Active Lifestyle Communities, says while there is

still great value in buying in the Arizona market after the U.S. housing sector was battered by the

recession, prices are climbing. “We already saw a 10-per-cent increase in price this year and reduced

incentives, and there are forecasts for increases next year as well.”

He says the increase is driven mostly by demand which is also driving costs of commodities like

concrete and labour.

“The markets are returning, particularly in Phoenix,” says Looney.

For the two Shea Lifestyles projects, sales were up 10 per cent this year in Encanterra and 12 per

cent in Vistancia.

And while he says much of that lift in sales is coming with the return of the domestic market —

snowbirds from elsewhere in the U.S. looking for warm weather second homes — Looney says there

continues to be a strong presence of Canadian buyers.



“There is still value. At one point our (Phoenix valley) prices were $180 to $190 per square foot and

that slipped to a low of about $77. Today, it is about $94.65 and economists are saying a stabilized

rate would be $145 to $150 per square foot. “

In the Encanterra all-ages country club community, house prices for the Mediterranean-styled homes

start in the high $190,000s. There are 13 floor plans for three designs that range in size from 1,300

to over 3,700 square feet. There are two-, three- and four-bedroom options and homes can be one

or two storeys.

In the 55-plus part of the community there are 11 floor plans, all single level, with square footage

ranging from 1,300 to over 2,700.

Prices start in the high $190,000s.

Houses can be built within three months.

At a recent information session on the Arizona projects, Looney says about 100 people turned out.

“We heard that they were continuing to feel good about the Canadian economy and that they also

feel things are improving in the U.S.”

Looney says the two Phoenix-area projects continue to see strong interest from Canadians, with the

strongest contingent being from Alberta.

The British Columbia market is also taking off, other interest has come from Saskatchewan and

Winnipeg, and there has also been some gain in Toronto and the eastern seaboard.

Looney touts not only the real estate value in the Phoenix market, but also the beautiful Arizona

weather; and the 200-plus golf courses in the area.

And, he says, you can live in Phoenix and have season tickets to the Coyotes and make trips to see

hockey, as well as access to all the other major sports like the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Arizona

Cardinals, the Phoenix Suns and the cactus spring training league of many baseball teams.

For the Farnhams, whose long-term retirement plan includes longer periods at Encanterra, the

community has everything they want ... and then some.

“Shea builds a great home — we (The Design Studio) build homes and do renovations as part of our

business and when we showed up at Encanterra everything was immaculate; there were only minor

touch-ups.

“There is everything there ... and the older we get, the more we want to get immersed in what there is

there,” Janet says.

“We find we are leaving the area less and less,” says Rob. “We don’t want to leave and we don’t have

to.”

in phoenix canadian couple enjoys love affair with second ......the other is trilogy at vistancia, a...

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