April’s Valley of the Sun Real Estate numbers!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
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Latest and greatest information courtesy of the Cromford Report.
The latest data just follows hand in hand with what I have been blogging for the past year. Although AZ is in a declining market, for buyers it is HOT! Canadians have been buying up the distressed properties for winter homes!
The market lost some steam during the first two and a half months of 2010, but appears to be hitting its stride as we enter the crucial second quarter. Sales through ARMLS for all areas & types during March totaled 8,963, which is 37% higher than February and 18% higher than March 2009. Pending listings total 13,232 at the time of writing, with 7,562 active listings under contingent offer (AWC), making a total of 20,794 listings under contract. The all-time record level of under contract listings was set on March 30 (21,564) just before a large number of closings in the last 3 days of March. To put this into context we had 14,126 listings under contract on the same date last year and only 6,931 on April 3, 2008. We expect this record to be beaten by the end of April.
So demand is still very strong, fueled by low prices, low interest rates, a tax credit that expires during the second quarter and strong buying interest from out of state, with Canadians in particular doing far more than their usual share of buying. Supply of active listings also increased through the first quarter until we reached mid-March, but has now started the usual seasonal declining pattern which should continue through the second quarter. In many areas we are now close to a balance between supply and demand.
Overall pricing has been fairly stable for the past 9 months across most of the market. Declines in the higher end of the market have been balanced by increases at the bottom end. To illustrate this, we can look at the annual appreciation between April 1, 2009 and April 1, 2010, based on the average $ per square foot for monthly sales of single family homes. As predicted for the last several months, overall annual appreciation turned positive in late February and is now reaching a peak. It is likely to fall back over the next several months but remain above zero.
Posted by Brian on 09:16 PM •
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