nventory of Maricopa Arizona subdivision homes for sale continues to spiral downward. It is very hard to predict where the “bottom line” number will be but I expected downward pressure for at least the next month or so until the seasonal buyers begin the exodus back home for the summer.This usually begins at the begiining of April and continues through mid May.
Since the law of supply and demand is in full force, one of the end results is that it is becoming more difficult for financed buyers to purchase a home. Because most of the current listings are investor owned homes that were purchased at the Trustee Sale, the pricing has been very aggressive and is usually at the very high end (or above) what the homes will appraise for. In addition, financed offers are competing against cash buyers and most sellers will lean toward the cash offers, even at a lower price. Mt recommendation to buyers that are financing is to keep your offers as “clean” as possible and at list price. Any seller concessions should be built into the offer price.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of months when the seasonal buyers leave. Some buyers are still reeling from the higher prices and are waiting until the summer in hopes that prices will drop. This remains to be seen.
ACTIVE: 150, down from 164 Enough said, this is the lowest number I have ever seen.
ACTIVE SHORT SALES: 22, down from 24 With inventory so limited, buyers continue to scoop up short sales and the supply of new listings is barely keeping pace. There are still a lot of distressed homeowners out there (over 250) and many may be waiting until the school year is over to list their homes. Others may still be weighing their options and/or hoping for reflief in the way of a principal reduction.
ACTIVE LENDER OWNED: 11, down from 16 This is a ridiculously low number! Obviously, the lenders still do not seem to be in much of a hurry to release their pent up shadow inventory as new REO listings are at a trickle. If and when they decide to begin releasing these homes, it will most likley have a great impact on values especially if it occurs during the summer.
AWC (short sales with offers): 208, stable from 206 This indicator has remained relatively steady for the past month or so.
PENDING: 285, stable from 290 Newly accepted offers continue to stream in keeping theis indicator very strong. I’ve mentioned this before but this number can be a bit “skewed” as some realtors are misusing this status on their short sales, which should be placed AWC rather than Pending when an offer is received.
CLOSED: 54, up from 27 This is a reflection of the typical end of the month rush to get transactions closed. Not a particularly strong number considering the activity.
FEBRUARY CLOSINGS: 167, down from 177 in JAN I would have expected a stronger number here since this is generally a reflection of offers that were made shortly after the first of the year when the seasonal buyers began to return in force. My take on it is that many of them experienced “sticker shick” at the higher prices relative to last year and it took awhile for them to begin “pulling the trigger”. I expect MAR and APR numbers to be very strong.
ACTIVE RENTALS: 112. stable from 116 I continue to be a bit surprised at the strong rental number. Ever since the first of the year, there has been only about a one month’s supply of rentals available. Some of this is due to seasonal tenants but I think it also has a lot to do with investors taking advantage of the higher prices and focusing more on “flipping” homes rather than turning them into rental units.
View the full spreadsheet: Monthly home data
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