This morning as I stepped outside before sunrise to go for my morning walk with my lab, Bella, my breath was almost taken away. It was already hot!!! No wonder, on the front page of the AZ Republic there was an article confirming this August already was the hottest on record. This doesn’t even count today and tomorrow which are expected to be 115.
As I was walking, I wondered where this expression came from…” Dog Days of Summer”? I always thought it was named for that summer period when it was so hot, dogs just laid around. Partially correct.
It really has an ancient astronomy origin defined by the period in late July in which the “Dog Star,” Sirius, rises in conjunction with the sun. The ancients believed that the star’s heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, “dog days.” Sirius is the alpha star in the constellation Canis Major. Canis Major is called the Big Dog, which gives Sirius its nickname of “the Dog Star”. The name Sirius means “scorching,” which may relate to its brightness as a star and its relationship to summer.
Or simply put “Dog Days od Summer” can also be defined as the time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress.
The weather might feel like the “Dog Days of Summer” in Phoenix but the housing market is anything but stagnant and sultry. There is plenty of activity in Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa and Tempe with short sales, foreclosed and traditional home sales being purchased by investors, 1st time home buyers, 2nd home/vaction buyers AND people moving here from out of state because of JOBS.
In the last 2 weeks, I completed 2 purchase contracts. They were both moving into the Phoenix area for work related reasons from out of state. This last week, I was showing homes to a Canadian couple. Typical this time of year I don’t see Canadians or northern staters. Interesting enough their reasoning was exactly that, they didn’t want more competition in the home buying process. So they came during the “Dog Days of Summer”. The strategy worked. We got a contract on a home that was not a short sale or foreclosed home, just a good old traditional home with the sellers in it looking to move up.
The weather might be defined by the “Dog Days of Summer” but the real estate activity certainly isn’t.
However, I do look forward to the cooler September weather 
