A Short Annual Review Of 2011 Greater Phoenix Real Estate Market

2011 was certainly an interesting year overall, but then again I have yet to see a year that was not. I'm not going to say too much about the year: I'll let the numbers speak below and you can always hit the archives to read the month by month plays.

What is clear is that 2011 was a busy year, especially when you compare it to 2008 when only 58,388 properties sold. 

Take a look at how attached properties took off, especially condos and townhomes. Sales went up much more then the market overall: 2011 compared to 2008.

Lender Owned Sales

Bank owned sales were above 2010 levels, but 10K units less then 2009. 2011 was a big year for REO properties mostly because more people had confidence in the future of the economy and real estate values so these were literally scooped up.

Short Sales And Pre-Foreclosures

Short sales are one of the reasons we had fewer REO properties on the market. Many lenders prefer short sales to foreclosures for a multitude of reasons which I have covered before.

Normal Sales

The big news is that normal sales, rocked. 34,366 normal sales were recorded. That is whole bunch more then the previous years.

Trustee Notices and Trustee Sales

Notices of trustee sales or foreclosure notices were down a whole bunch compared to 103,341 in 2009 and even 2008 or 2010. Trustee sales too went down, partially because third party buyers took some of the slack. Good stuff.

New Home Sales

Not surprisingly new home sales were in the hole at 5,927 units. Look at the previous years for comparison. They did pickup toward the end of 2011 as overall inventory took a nose dive and demand grew.

But, that's all in the past: let's get back to the now and focus on the future.