Phoenix Median Home Price Appreciation Continues in Negative Territory

 

Jay Butler of the Arizona Real Estate Center released his report yesterday on the state of the Phoenix housing market.  Median price appreciation [corrected] remain in negative territory, with the median at $257,000 this year, down 1.12 percent from last year’s $259,900.  From the graph it might appear that the trend may have moderated somewhat:

However, there are some things that the median continues to hide.  Although resellers have difficulty offering the incentives homebuilders do, they are willing to wheel and deal. As L has pointed out to me, there are a number of homes in the Valley that are selling above list price.   Last year that would be indicative of bidding wars- but not this year.  Currently these inflated prices are a result of prices being increased to extract cash, or to cover closing costs.  (This also affects Zillow estimates) I understand that their is no easy way in the MLS to generate a report and see how rampant this is, but the numbers appear to be significant.

The other issue Butler discusses is number of sales:

The local single-family resale market had a slight upturn in October 2006, as recorded sales rose to 4,985 transactions from 4,875 sales in September, but still well below the 8,420 recorded sales of last year. This is the lowest monthly level for October since 4,860 sales were reported in 2001. So far in 2006, there have been a total of 57,375 sales, while it stood at 97,165 sales in 2005 year to date.

According to the New York Times, In Arizona, "For Sale" is a Sign of the Times.  That’s a trend that will continue for awhile.

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3 Comments for this entry

  1. techscan says:
    November 9, 2006 at 8:52 AM

    “Phoenix Median Home Prices Continue in Negative Territory”

    Umm, I don’t think it’s picky to point out that Median Home Price APPRECIATION is what you mean. Even I’d be willing to pick up a few Phoenix houses for negative prices if only to have the municipality mail me a negative tax bill every year I can take to the bank.

    Regards,
    Robert Coté

  2. twist says:
    November 9, 2006 at 9:38 AM

    You aren’t being too picky- in my hurry to get this up this morning, I obviously wasn’t sufficiently careful. Thank you for keeping me honest! (We’d all love that tax bill though!)

  3. chuck7 says:
    November 10, 2006 at 9:32 AM

    It is amazing how flippers think. The models are 200 to 300k below their investment homes and hardly any upgrades to boot. They must be supplying blinders to every person who comes thru, do they really think that the public is that stupid or what?

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