Phoenix Homes Blog

New Home Sales up

phxhomes — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:03:53 +0000

Last August we counted 500 new home closings in the metro Phoenix
housing market, and this year we tallied 632 new home closings for the
month, a 26% increase. (source, RL Reports)

Listings are down

phxhomes — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:49:00 +0000

The listing count reported in the August Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS¹) Reports, which were released on September 15^th, was 26,983—down 680 listings from the July reports.

Reported sales for July dropped 24.6% from the June sales. We are very close to a normal Phoenix market.

phxhomes — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:52:46 +0000

Listings back to high end of normal range

phxhomes — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:30:20 +0000

This graph shows the number of listings has dropped to 30k. Follow the 30k line over to December of ’02 and you will see we are back to more reasonable levels. What does this mean… well with the number of listings down, and sales at an all time high, (red line matching the highs of ’05) prices will soon be going back up.

Sales (red) Vs. Listings (Blue)

phxhomes — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:25:46 +0000

ARMLS-reported sales for November rose 0.2% from the October sales figure with an increase of 208. On an annually adjusted basis sales were down 705 or almost 10% from November 2009. This past May’s decrease was the first time in twenty-three months that there was a drop in sales over the same month in the prior year.

November’s sales quantity is typically very close to or slightly lower than October’s, so this month’s change is following the normal calendar cycle. In the normal calendar cycle, sales tend to be highest in the summer and then gradually taper off over the next few months before resuming the climb during the first quarter of each year. The winter months are consistently the lowest in sales.

Median Home Values Rise

phxhomes — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:22:57 +0000

The Median Price in the recently released March ARMLS(Arizona Regional MLS) resale sales reports is $128,000, up $3,000 from the February reports. The Average Price increased from $173,900 to $178,200. The graph below displays both the monthly Average Price and Median Price of resale homes sold in MLS from January 2002 through March 2010.

New Short Sale Program

phxhomes — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:59:24 +0000

A new government program, the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative Program (HAFA), will simplify short sales for sellers who have already applied for a loan modification as discussed below. HAFA streamlines the short sale process by pre-approving the seller and the terms of the short sale prior to listing the home for sale. Thus, the seller will be approved for a short sale based on documentation already provided to the lender as part of a loan modification. The seller will also know the net proceeds required by the lender before an offer to purchase the home is even made. Finally, the lender must forgive the seller for the rest of the mortgage not paid by the short sale.

https://www.hmpadmin.com/portal/docs/hamp_servicer/sd0909.pdf

First Time Homebuyer $8,000 tax credit set to expire

phxhomes — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:17:55 +0000

The $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit ($6,500 for existing homeowners) is scheduled to expire April 30 (sales contracts signed by April 30 have until June 30 to close) A first time home buyer is anyone who has not owned a home for the past 3 years.

Median homes prices are up

phxhomes — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:58:35 +0000

The good news this month in metro Phoenix housing is that the median new home price for the month rose to $197,948 from last month’s low point of $183,750 which matched prices in the summer of 2004. Certainly one month doesn’t confirm a change in the trend of sliding median new home prices, but a new path has to have a beginning, and August could represent that new start and be a sign of a change of pricing direction for the new home market.

For the first time in five years, existing-home sales have increased for four months in a row.

phxhomes — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:21:13 +0000

The national median existing-home price³ for all housing types was $178,400 in July, which is 15.1 percent lower than July 2008. Distressed properties continue to weigh down the median price because they typically sell for 15 to 20 percent less than traditional homes.

Single-family home sales increased 6.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.61 million in July from a pace of 4.33 million in June, and are 5.0 percent higher than the 4.39 million-unit level in July 2008. The median existing single-family home price was $178,300 in July, which is 14.6 percent below a year ago.

Since it’s now taking longer to complete a home sale, first-time buyers who want to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit should try to make contract offers by the end of September.

Source:NAR