Over the last few months the distribution of sales between starter homes, move-up homes and luxury homes in the Phoenix real estate market has been changing. Does this trend signal a start of stabilization of the Phoenix real estate market?
(Data from ARMLS 6/07 to 5/08) The red line represents sales of Greater Phoenix luxury homes, which in this case are $430,000 plus or just about where Jumbo loans start ($417,000) Specific cities like Scottsdale and areas such as Arcadia or the Biltmore areas would have their own distribution matrix in which luxury homes prices would be much higher.
A total of 629 homes in the luxury homes segment sold in May 2008. This represents a much smaller portion of total sales then the previous months (see graph) median prices in Phoenix of homes put much of the Phoenix real estate our of reach for many people, almost putting a stop to turnover in this segment and slowing the sales of the other segments.
For our clients we do a very thorough analysis, much more extensive then what you will see here at Phoenix Market Trends, of the market for their specific real estate segment and area. Please call us should you be ready to by or sell or if you have any other questions. Joanna 602.358.1392 Sales of starter homes is cause pause. It's a good sign and good news. Many of these starter homes were owned by people who will now move into the move up segment and possibly increase turnover there. The starter home buyers represent the most important group of home buyers. But the whole story is not told by the numbers and the graph. Many of these starter homes that sold were vacant. They were never lived in investor homes, short sales, lender owned homes. In many of these no one lived there to move-up, so at least for now the benefit lies in reducing supply. The green line represents the largest portion of sales in Phoenix; the starter home segment at 3,681 sales in May 2008. This is s good sign because this is the segment that was hardest hit by the easy loans and subsequent rise. The rising The blue line represents move up buyers. While the move up market represented a significant portion of sales in 2007 that trend has changed. In May 2008, 1,381 move up homes were sold. But take a look at the trend lines in the graph above and you'll see that growth of this segment has slowed. Part of the change can be that many of the home which were priced in the move up market have been repriced to be starter homes. | 
