Report: Upbeat findings for Arizona housing market

David Wallace/The Republic A sign last month advertises another Valley home sold, this one in Gilbert. A new ASU report suggests that home prices overall in the Phoenix area have been on the rise since September.



Metro Phoenix home prices are up. Fewer inexpensive homes are for sale, and the number of pending foreclosures is down.

The positive housing-market update comes from Arizona State University's newest real-estate report.

It's the first monthly housing analysis from Mike Orr, who was recently named director of the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice for ASU's W.P. Carey School of Business.

"Single-family home prices overall in the Phoenix area have been moving up since they reached a low point in September," Orr said in his debut monthly housing report.

"Also, looking forward, I expect a declining trend in foreclosures."

Orr also publishes a daily online analysis of Phoenix-area housing indicators called the "Cromford Report."

The median price of all home sales, including new homes, reached $120,500 in January of this year, Orr reports. That compares with $113,166 a year earlier.

The average price per square foot of Valley houses has climbed 3 percent since last year.

There were approximately 8,000 new and used homes sold in January, up from 7,500 in January 2011.

Orr said investors have snatched up the oversupply of homes for sale under $300,000.

"Many people think there's a glut of homes the banks are hiding somewhere, and that may be the case in other markets, but not here in the Phoenix area," he said.

"We've gone through so many foreclosures that the system has been working itself out for about five years."

In January, there were 2,450 single-family foreclosures in both Maricopa and Pinal counties, compared with 4,200 during January 2011, according to the ASU report.

The supply of homes listed for sale in metro Phoenix is down 42 percent from a year earlier.

by Catherine Reagor - Feb. 23, 2012 06:35 PM The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com





Report: Upbeat findings for Arizona housing market

Phoenix area housing market slips a bit

This year has been one of ups and downs for metro Phoenix's housing market, but the area's existing-home median price is now exactly what it was a year ago.

The price is hovering around $115,000, according to housing-data company the Information Market. The price fell to $115,000 a year ago, and stayed there for half of 2011 before climbing and falling by a few thousand dollars each month during the summer.

The number of foreclosures, however, has clearly dropped during the past year. In October, lenders took back 2,233 homes in the Phoenix area, down from 2,687 in September, and nearly half the area's foreclosures two years ago.

Notices of trustee sales, the alerts commonly called pre-foreclosures, also dropped in October, typically a good indicator that foreclosures will continue to fall. Lenders sent notices to 4,180 borrowers last month in Maricopa County, down from 4,335 in September. By comparison, in March 2009, pre-foreclosures hit a record 10,099.

Home sales across the Phoenix area fell last month despite low mortgage interest rates. In October, there were 7,151 homes sold in the region, down from 7,673 the month before.

"There was a lot of drama and speculation about Phoenix's housing market this year," said Tom Ruff, real estate analyst with the Information Market. "People spooked the market by forecasting for the area's median to fall below $100,000, and for foreclosures to soar again. Neither happened this year."

by Catherine Reagor The Arizona Republic Nov. 25, 2011 12:00 AM



Phoenix area housing market slips a bit