Sales of new Valley homes rise

Tribune - May 2008

The Valley's new-home market showed more signs of steadying last month with some developments even seeing a slight uptick in prices.

A total of 1,890 new homes were sold in March, according to the latest Phoenix Housing Market Letter by analyst RL Brown. That's a 4.2 percent increase from the previous month but still nearly 50 percent below the same time last year.

The number of sales still isn't what the industry is looking for, but it marks a halt to the market's steep free-fall, Brown said.

Prices are stabilizing in areas where builders have rid themselves of excess speculative houses and are back in production mode, he said.

"Some builders are finding enough business to actually raise prices," Brown said. "It's a good sign."

An analysis of 4,754 floor plans shows a 9 percent increase in price over the past four months, while 60 percent saw prices remain unchanged.
Some builders raising prices are trying to create a sense of urgency for buyers, said John Fioramonti, senior managing director of Meyers Builder Advisors in Scottsdale.

Fioramonti said one developer in north Scottsdale has seen a big jump in foot traffic through the sales office, but people aren't taking the plunge. They're waiting for prices to drop further, he said. "The builders are trying to create a sense of the bottom has been hit," he said.

Fioramonti added that rises in price are being seen in developments closer to the urban core, not in outlying areas.

In places such as Maricopa, builders are facing off against sellers whose houses are only a few years old and are priced at $30,000 or $40,000 less, he said.

Builders are also still burdened by a lack of consumer confidence, a continuing wave of foreclosures and an oversupply of houses on the market, Brown said.

Sellers are "cluttering the marketplace," Brown said. "The smartest buyers are the ones who are shopping now, shopping carefully for real bargains."

Pinal County resale home market on upswing

Phoenix Business Journal - May 2008

The resale home market in Pinal County is turning around.
The area southeast of Phoenix recorded 1,680 sales in the first quarter of this year, according to Arizona State University Realty Studies. That's up from 1,145 sales in the fourth quarter of 2007 and only 625 in the third quarter.

Measured month-to-month, the numbers are equally positive. The area had 465 recorded sales in January, 600 in February and 620 in March.
This activity is close to the record 1,785 sales in second-quarter 2005.
The Queen Creek area accounted for 39 percent of the resale activity, followed by 18 percent in the Maricopa area and 15 percent in the Apache Junction area.

Even with an increase in home sales, the median price of Pinal County homes is dropping. The median price of a resale home has eroded from $220,000 in fourth quarter 2005 to $193,000 in third-quarter 2007 and $156,160 for the current quarter. It was $204,600 a a year ago.