Arizona Real Estate Notebook

(See recent posts on Phoenix Case-Shiller Home Price Index.)

I have two posts below looking at home prices in metropolitan Phoenix.

One graph shows the median home price in metropolitan Phoenix based on MLS data.

The other graph shows the Case-Shiller Index of home prices in metropolitan Phoenix.

Case-Shiller Home Price Index for Phoenix

Pro

• They look at repeat sales of the same homes and this technique gives us the most accurate reflection of home price appreciation and depreciation.
• The dataset includes 20 cities so I can compare changes in different cities.

Con

• The numbers are a bit old. The are published 2 months after the month ends.

Phoenix MLS Median Home Sale Price

Pro

• The numbers come out about 2 weeks after the end of the month and come with a lot of extra data such as inventory and number of homes sold.

Con

• The median price is affected by changes in the price of homes that are selling. That is, if people start buying an increased amount of less expensive homes, then the median price can fall when prices haven’t really changed. (However, changes in the MLS median price are tracking closely with the Case-Shiller numbers so I’m not worried about this con.)
• They only include homes sold via the MLS, not all sales.