Our Phoenix housing tracker reports sales trends and overall conditions in the Phoenix / Scottsdale real estate market. We help consumers who want to buy homes or sell their homes quickly, including investors. This edition will discuss sales results from August 2012 and includes both normal and foreclosure sales. We define foreclosure sales as both short sales and bank home foreclosures (REOs).
As in every state, bank home foreclosures in Phoenix Arizona have changed the landscape and contributed to dramatic decreases in home values. However, that has been changing.
Phoenix foreclosure sales were credited with 43% of all sales in the last 5 months. To illustrate the turnaround, foreclosure sales represented as many as 75% of all sales back in 2009. No surprise that so many people were upside down in their mortgages.
A notable item to report (even before the sales numbers were final in August) was that September 2012 begin with 14,428 active listings, which was the 3rd consecutive month of increases. For more details click here: Phoenix Housing Tracker listings increase.
Phoenix foreclosure listings are down to a four-year low and represent approximately 17% of all active listings. August home sales in the Phoenix area increased by 5.5% over July. See more details here: Phoenix Home Sales. Residential home sales in August totaled 7,579 properties, up from a relatively weak July that saw 7,186 sales. As a point of reference, home sales in March through June of 2012 were all over 8,400 sales.
Investors buying investment property accounted for 1/3 of home sales in August.
It's notable that the price per square foot took a small drop to $98 in August from the $99 in July. This comes after it bottomed out at $77 in March 2011 and then shot up to $102 in May 2012. For more information: Phoenix Housing Tracker Price Per square Foot. This link also shows the price difference between normal sales and foreclosure type sales was $37 per square foot. The highest difference we ever reported was $60 back in the spring of 2009. Here are some summaries:
- Active Listings (excluding AWC): 14,428 versus 19,244 last year - down 25% - and up 7% from last month
- Active Listings (including AWC): 20,678 versus 26,820 last year - down 23% - and up 3% from last month
- Pending Listings: 10,125 versus 11,508 last year - down 12% - and down 3% from last month
- Monthly Sales: 7,579 versus 8,094 last year - down 6% - and up 5.5% from last month
- Monthly Average Sales Price per Sq. Ft.: $98 versus $80 last year - up 23% - and down 1% from last month
- Monthly Median Sales Price: $145,700 versus $109,900 last year - up 33% - and up 0.6% from last month
What can we expect for pricing trends in September? Mike Orr, from the Cromford Report, has discovered (and I agree) that:
It is striking how accurately the average price per sq. ft. for under contract listings has foretold the monthly average sales price per sq. ft. The under contract average $/SF trend turned somewhat negative after April 27, while that for monthly sales $/SF followed suit on June 16.
In other words, future pricing trends (1.5 to 2 months in advance) can be somewhat predicted by the current "pending" price per square foot. This chart from the Cromford Report indicates price per square foot for "pending sales" is on the rise. An important point to note is that the actual price per square foot number is not as important as the trend.
Note how closely the final sales price per square foot (as reported in our Phoenix housing tracker) follows the trends from the previous 6-8 weeks. It appears the price per square foot will be up in September 2012. This could be the time to sell your home quickly in Phoenix.
Comments(0)