Arizona Real Estate Notebook

Phoenix Home Sales

Metro Phoenix single family home sales (blue line) in September (6,747) were the most sold in any September since September 2009 (6,923) when sales were pumped up by the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit.

Factoid: More than twice as many homes sold in metro Phoenix in September 2011 (6,747) than in September 2007 (3,169).

Phoenix Housing Inventory

The number of homes listed for sale in metro Phoenix (red line) finally stopped falling (more or less) in October.

Compare 2011 to 2009 when the inventory of homes leveled off in August (much more typical) instead of October.

The unusually high number of home sales has been pulling down the inventory of homes available for sale while at the same time new listings hitting the market have been unusually low. So, all the homes sold were not replaced by new listings and inventory fell.

Phoenix New MLS Listings

In September 2011, we only had 9,498 new listings hit the market which is a 25% decline from September 2010 when we had 12,601 new listings hit the market.

In fact, the number of new single family homes hitting the metro Phoenix market in September 2011 was lower than any September since September 2001.

Realtor Inside Baseball. Bank asset managers have been stringing along their Phoenix real estate agents for many months saying that they (the banks) had a lot of foreclosures in process that they soon would put on the market. Soon hasn’t come yet. Still no bump in new bank listings. I don’t think there will be. I think that was just the banks’ party line to string along real estate agents.

Phoenix Home Prices

The Phoenix median home price (green line) finally bumped up in September to $120,500, which was 4% above August. We haven’t seen a median that high since last November but, honestly, the median home price in metro Phoenix has been pretty much flat since last December.

That price increase – at a time of year when prices usually weaken – helps me feel more comfortable in my prediction last month that tight inventories will cause the median Phoenix home price to move sharply higher in 2012 to well above the highs of 2009 ($135,500) and 2010 ($137,900).

If you’re looking for a Realtor to help you buy a Phoenix area home, fill out this form. If you’re not looking for a home in my area of expertise, I’ll refer you to a Realtor I trust in your area. Thanks, John.