Great Statistics to give guidance on the current market!

Phoenix April Home Sales/Median Prices/Foreclosure Resales/%Absentee Buyers/%FHA
April sales of existing homes in the Phoenix area rose to the highest level for any month in nearly three years as absentee buyers and those using government-insured FHA loans accounted for the vast majority of purchases. The median price paid for all new and existing homes sold dropped to $125,000, the lowest in a decade, a real estate information service reported.

Distressed sales once again dominated the market. Sixty-five percent of the Phoenix-area houses and condos that resold in April had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months, according to MDA DataQuick. The San Diego-based firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

A total of 9,012 new and resale homes closed escrow in the combined Maricopa-Pinal counties metropolitan area in April, up 8.6 percent from March and up 27.1 percent from a year ago. Resales of houses and condos combined have risen on a year-over-year basis for 10 consecutive months, and the April resale total of 8,152 was the highest for any month since June 2006.
Stronger home sales across much of the West have been driven mainly by bargain hunters. Most are first-time buyers and investors choosing either foreclosure resales or other lower-cost homes in hard-hit neighborhoods. Last month about 46 percent of all Phoenix-area buyers used government-insured FHA loans, a popular choice among first-time buyers. Absentee buyers made up 37.4 percent of all purchases – a relatively high percentage in the West. Absentee buyers include investors, mainly, as well as other buyers whom public records show will have their property tax bills go to an address other than the one for the home they just purchased.
Last month’s year-over-year gains in house and condo resales offset a year-over-year decline in sales of newly constructed homes, which posted a drop of 57.0 percent. The 860 homes builders sold last month marked the lowest new-home tally for an April in more than a decade.
The median price paid last month for all new and resale houses and condos combined fell to $125,000, down 3.8 percent from March and down 41.6 percent from a year ago. The 3.8 percent month-to-month decline in the median last month matched the decline in March, which compared with month-to-month declines averaging 5.5 percent in the 6 months ending in February this year.

It’s unclear whether milder month-to-month declines in the median sale price in Phoenix and some other Western markets foretell a price plateau. Depending on their severity, ongoing job losses and foreclosures could undermine any trend toward near-term price stability.
Last month’s $125,000 median stood 52.7 percent below the Phoenix area’s peak $264,100 median reached in June 2006. The median has fallen on a year-over-year basis for 27 consecutive months.

An alternative price gauge analysts watch shows sharper price declines: The median paid per square foot for existing single-family (detached) houses fell to $64 in April, down 47.6 percent from a year ago and down 62.6 percent from a peak $171 in June 2006.

Across the West, year-over-year declines in the median sale price - the point where half of the homes sold for more and half for less – have sometimes overstated the extent to which the value of the typical home has fallen. It’s because the median is being tugged lower not just by price depreciation but by shifts in the types of homes selling. For example, more of today's sales involve foreclosures, which tend to sell at a discount and be concentrated in more affordable areas. Also, the August 2007 credit crunch made larger "jumbo" mortgages more expensive and harder to obtain, which has led to sluggish sales – in some cases the lowest in many years – in higher-priced neighborhoods. (A dropoff in high-end sales can pull down the median.)

Media calls: Andrew LePage (916) 456-7157
Copyright 2009 MDA DataQuick Information Systems. All rights reserved.

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Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

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