Tessera Solar received final approval from the Phoenix City Council to build a solar plant estimated at $1 billion on a city landfill in Buckeye.

The Houston company will build a 150- to 200-megawatt system at the landfill on the west side of State Route 85. The project will be built on about 1,200 acres, and Phoenix officials said it will generate about 300 construction jobs.

Meritage Homes Corp. announced Monday that it has purchased a partially completed adult community in Maricopa. Terms of the acquisition were not released.

Scottsdale-based Meritage bought 433 finished lots and 885 planned lots, which are part of the Province community. Tousa/Engle Homes had been the developer as part of a larger joint venture with Phoenix-based Sunbelt Holdings. Florida-based Tousa Engle has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and announced that it was pulling out of the Phoenix market earlier in the year.

The Colorado condominium investors who recently bought a lakeside condominium tower from Suncor in Tempe are now sinking their cash into two Starpointe Communities projects, one in Scottsdale and the other in Phoenix. Denver-based Condo Capital Solutions said its latest investment in Valley real estate differs from its $20.3 million purchase of Suncor's Bridgeview Condominiums in early August because the investment firm is buying two of Starpointe's construction loans and not the actual condos.

Phoenix is using stimulus funds to help first-time homebuyers purchase homes in foreclosure.  A seminar held last week taught potential buyers how to apply to receive $15,000 to use toward down payments and closing cost on properties that have gone back to the bank. You can afford to look into a foreclosure that might need $15,000 worth of work done on it if you already have the $15,000 through the program. 

Hope Now Alliance, the city of Phoenix Neighborhood Services Department, Arizona Foreclosure Prevention Task Force and NeighborWorks America are partnering to provide homeowners a FREE opportunity to meet with lenders and HUD-certified housing counselors to discuss foreclosure prevention options 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., Friday, July 31 and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, South Mountain High School, 5401 S. 7th St.

Metropolitan Phoenix's home-building market experienced a mini revival in June, signaling buyers aren't only interested in the area's bargain-priced foreclosure houses.

Last month, 1,183 single-family housing permits were issued Valley-wide, according to RL Brown's latest "Phoenix Housing Market Letter." That's the highest level for home building in six months, and a 57 percent increase from May's permits.

With a newly announced solar plant set to come online in about four years, Arizona soon should get solar-related jobs, albeit in the construction industry.

Last week’s announcement that Lockheed Martin Corp. and Starwood Energy Group Global LLC were collaborating on a 290-megawatt facility about 75 miles west of Phoenix means Arizona contractors will get some of the work, said Chris Myers, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for energy programs.

Buy a home and you get a tax break!

As part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a First-time Homebuyer Tax Credit is now available. But this special tax break ends in 2009. A homebuyer tax credit has been available for first-time homebuyers in Washington, D.C. for many years, and now first-time homebuyers nationwide can take advantage of a similar benefit. In this brochure we’ll discuss some of the provisions of the credit, changes based on the new legislation, and explain how to use it.

While home prices continue to drop across the nation, only two states are seeing a larger increase in home sales than Arizona, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Ninety percent of the nation’s metropolitan areas reported lower median home prices in the first quarter of 2009, compared with the first quarter of 2008.The national median for an existing single-family home was $169,000, nearly 14 percent below the first quarter of 2008. The Phoenix-area median home price in first-quarter 2009 was $129,200. A year ago it was $222,200, a drop of nearly 42 percent.

The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona is helping those displaced from the construction industry find new jobs, even if it means losing them to another trade.

The Phoenix-based trade organization has created the New Start Network, a Monday morning networking and education group that helps people prepare for the job hunt and deal with other issues involved with job loss.