Tagged : phoenix home sales

Sales are down from both 2011 and 2010. Only 8,480 properties sold compared to 9,452 for the same period last year and 9,129 two years ago. The same thing for pending properties: 11,996 currently while last year it was 13,326 and 14,406 two years ago. 

If you only looked at those numbers the trend would look depressing and dismal, but the reality is so much different, it's almost as extreme and surreal as it was in 2005 and 2008.

All those numbers are down from the previous periods only and only because there is a lack of inventory, or demand has driven down inventory to levels that have forced a significant change in the market trend. Lack of inventory, lots of cash out there, a volatile stock market, low interest payments in the banks and low

Anyone in the market right now as a buyer has their feet on the ground and in the trenches. These people know what the market is like. The newspaper writers don't. Despite the still somewhat gloomy national market new, the local market is buzzing with activity like a flock of bees to freshly opened flowers. In fact, a recent survey of buyers by Redfin indicated that one of the concerns buyers had when buying in the current market is a lack of inventory. 

Almost all offers we put in are met with resistance from other competing offers, often pushing the price beyond what I think the market value is, but that's the prerogative buyers with cash have. They can choose to over pay a bit to gain control of a property that will make sense for the long term.

Start by looking at the right end of the graph below in the present where it is clear by the graph and the activity in the market that prices have stabilized and many cases are on the rise without any foreign influence: by that I mean government incentives like the tax credits we had a few years ago, which did nothing, but artificially bump the market before it corrected itself after the incentives were removed. 

Those are gone and prices are almost naturally coming back and improving. It's good to see this finally.

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

It's quite an exciting time in the Phoenix real estate market. Good things are happening, despite the continued distress in the housing market and overall economy. There are some negatives to this turn in the market and we'll get into those, but they pale in comparison to what the market went through in the last half decade. 

This is now the year 2012 and it just keeps getting better. I know for many the financial and economic situations vary. In 2008/2009 when so few properties sold, it was hard to make ends meet and our reserves were depleted, the real estate portfolio value went down, even some properties were purchased a decade ago had no equity and the near future was bleak. Some people are still in hard times, but the important thing to remember

Investors continue to find Phoenix real estate attractive. The data show this and even our business is heavy with investors from all around in fact: Canada, Poland, China, not to mention investors from other states like California, Oregon and Washington to name a few. 

Those little red dots in the above graph show the percentage of homes sold to investors and that number remains, as it has over the last few months, above 25%. So 1 in 4 residential properties sell to an investor. The only reason volume is down is because all of the inventory is down and it's getting harder to find homes to buy.

Interestingly and probably not coincidentally the proportion of properties purchased by cash has also been high. There is a lot of cash out there.

A review of new home and resale home sales in Greater Phoenix from 2003 to September 2011. It's really hard for new home builders to compete with the low prices of resale homes, thus the deep dip in sales of new home and the brisk sales of resale homes.

Since June 2010 new home sales have been hovering at a maximum of about 450 with some dips into the mid 300 units per month. The last few months have been different with sales perking up over the long term low trend. Still they are below what they were the previous decade, but a rise in sales of over 100% over earlier this year is significant, although it is important to mention that just like the resale home sales, new home sales have a cycle with is evident in the chart above, with a slump in

Active listings are up in Goodyear AZ, this is as expected. The number is now 623 homes vs 610 in August and 651 in June. Sales too have dropped to 149 over the last 30 days, which is down from 218 the previous 30 day period: all normal and expected. This has resulted in an increase in inventory to 3.9 months from 2.9 months last month.

Not surprisingly it will be easier to find a home now as less people are looking and competing for the same homes. 

( Graph: Cromford Report )

39% of all sales in Goodyear are bank owned and 29% are shorts sales: 68% of all homes sold are distressed. Still an amazing number and one that is too high. Hopefully as the market progresses onward the numbers will improve. Foreclosures are going down in all of

As you can see in Active Listings the total number of active lender owned homes is on a decline. It's less then half of what was on the market last year, but sales remain about steady and in fact they are higher this year at 3,971 properties sold than 3,902 last year.  The supply at less than a month is really small, but demand remains high. 

This demand is exemplified by the Listing Success Rate of 100.1% and the 99.44% sales to list price. It means more homes are selling then are coming on the market for the first number and the second number that bank owned homes are selling at nearly 100% of asking price: essentially there is no additional discount beyond the list price.

(Graph: The Cromford Report)

Expect the supply to remain low, but