More Tempe homeowners razing house for new one
Betty Beard The Arizona Republic Feb. 10, 2006 12:00 AM
TEMPE - Pam Thelander jokes that she threw her Tempe house in the garbage.
It's basically true. Thelander is one of a growing number of residents in and around Tempe who are demolishing older homes and rebuilding on the same lots. Her 40-year-old house was smashed and hauled away.
The trend is catching on in Tempe because houses and land have become much more valuable and because Tempe has large older lots with mature trees and a location close to the heart of the Phoenix area.
Pam and her husband, Todd, who farms near Maricopa, learned it would cost $70,000 to $80,000 to bring their 2,400-square-foot home up to date. They paid $18,000 for demolition and plan to replace it with a 6,000-square-foot home.
"We had a demolishing party. It was so much fun," she said. "We invited the kids in the neighborhood. The teenagers went nuts, putting trash in my oven, the stove, knocking down walls. We allowed the kids to do graffiti."
Tempe has seen 53 homes demolished in the past three years, according to city demolition permits. The bulk of those, 29, were last year.
Elizabeth Cling and her husband bought a 1950s home near Apache Boulevard and College Avenue but just wanted the land. So instead of destroying the house, they had it moved and donated it.
"It's over half an acre," Cling said of the lot. "The area is beautiful. You can't buy (houseless) lots like this in Tempe. It has mature trees and irrigation. It's just a great neighborhood."
The Clings donated the home to an organization that provides houses for low-income people. They will get a tax deduction that just about offsets the cost of demolition and moving.
"The house was a solid-block home," she said. "There was technically nothing wrong with it. It didn't serve our purpose, and we didn't see any reason to tear it down."
The Clings will replace it with a 5,000-square-foot home.
The demolishing trend hasn't caught on in Chandler. But in nearby Ahwatukee Foothills, it's more common to see homes substantially remodeled.
Housing analyst RL Brown predicts rehabs will be the wave of the future in the southeast Valley and become a huge business.
The region is closer to the heart of the Phoenix area compared with new-home areas in Pinal County, he said. Southeast Valley commuters don't have to drive as far or pay so much for gasoline.
"You can spend a lot of money, maybe $75,000 to $100,000 for a full rehabilitation, but you end up with a close-in neighborhood, mature trees and no commute," Brown said.