The Arizona Republic - April 2007
The annual home resale season appears to be off to its normally strong spring start, as the number of houses sold in the Southeast Valley increased an average of 28 percent from February to March, according to Realty Studies.
However, prices were down from the same month last year.
The number of sales increased from February to March in each community except Tempe, where the number fell from 135 to 125, or 7 percent.
Sales elsewhere increased: Mesa, 460 to 620, or 35 percent; Chandler, 280 to 380, or 36 percent; Gilbert, 230 to 290, or 26 percent, and Ahwatukee, 85 to 120, or 41 percent.However, median prices fell throughout the Southeast Valley in March, compared to a year earlier, as the high number of homes for sale created competition among sellers.
Median prices for existing homes fell from March 2006 to March 2007 in every community in the Southeast Valley, with Ahwatukee Foothills and Gilbert experiencing the greatest decreases of 7 and 8 percent, respectively, according to the latest numbers released Tuesday by Realty Studies at Arizona State University.
"People are lowering their prices, if they can, to sell," said Jay Butler, director of Realty Studies.
With the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service reporting almost 16,700 homes for sale at the end of February, the Southeast Valley has a glut of homes on the market that will take some time to sell. Homes are taking an average of at least 98 days to sell in the Southeast Valley, according to ARMLS.
Butler said he can't predict when the inventory will be sold off. "It raises a lot of issues like why is the inventory so high?
If we had tremendous population growth that everyone is talking about, why are we looking at high numbers?" he said.
Possible explanations could be investors trying to unload homes, and that January is usually the month when the Phoenix area tends to get the highest listings and fewest buyers.
