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Phoenix Real Estate Inventory: July 8, 2008

avatarthumbnail.jpgWhen I first started tracking absorption rate figures two years ago this month, my interest was less about the weekly statistics than the trends that could be seen over time. Trends tend to carry more weight than solitary statistics, at least in my mind.

For example … tell me a batter is hitting .372 for a given week and I’ll assume he’s having a good week. Tell me that he hit .372 for a given season and .394 in another I’ll tell you that he had two amazing seasons. Now tell me he has a career batting average of .338 and you’ll have my attention.

(Bonus points if anyone knows the person behind the last two examples.)

Last week I received this comment on my weekly absorption rate post:

1. Calculating “Actives Homes” on the 1st of the month is not accurate, since most of them expire on the previous day and dont get relisted immediately.

As you almost certainly know if you’ve read the blog, I don’t run the numbers on the first of the month; I run them weekly, usually on Tuesdays. In addition, while it’s noteworthy that many listings expire on the first of the month, in the long run it has virtually no real impact on the numbers. There’s no way to compensate for a large number of expireds because not all expireds return to the market.

Case in point … as of this morning, July 8, a full week after the first of the month, inventory was down by a handful of homes. There was no mad rush to return all of the expired listings back to the Arizona Regional MLS. And whatever was put back into the system essentially was absorbed to the point of a near neutral week.

Sales were down slightly, leading to a slightly higher absorption rate at 8.66 months of inventory. In the bank owned arena (and I don’t mean Chase Field), listings and sales both were up by a handful and we’re still at 3.5 months of inventory there.

One side note … some have asked me about pendings but I intentionally don’t track these as they’re neither active listings not completed sales. And there’s no hard and fast way of telling whether these pendings will close or go back active.

Back to the main subject and on to the numbers. As always, all data is provided by the Arizona Regional MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Phoenix Real Estate Inventory: July 8

  Sold Active Absorption  
City 6/7/08-7/7/08 7/8/08 Rate Change
Ahwatukee 6 52 8.67 2.89
Anthem 75 474 6.32 -0.09
Avondale 139 938 6.75 0.24
Buckeye 89 1,125 12.64 -1.04
Carefree 6 118 19.67 -0.17
Cave Creek 38 532 14.00 -1.11
Chandler 332 1,838 5.54 -0.01
Desert Hills 10 159 15.90 -1.77
El Mirage 58 438 7.55 0.83
Fountain Hills 24 513 21.38 1.64
Gilbert 338 2,086 6.17 -0.19
Glendale 285 2,069 7.26 -0.41
Goodyear 139 896 6.45 -0.10
Laveen 56 491 8.77 1.61
Litchfield Park 52 447 8.60 -0.98
Maricopa 155 795 5.13 -0.03
Mesa 396 3,235 8.17 -0.05
Paradise Valley 16 455 28.44 0.44
Peoria 189 1,619 8.57 -0.42
Phoenix 999 10,347 10.36 0.57
Queen Creek 358 1,628 4.55 0.04
Scottsdale 305 3,914 12.83 0.56
Sun City 62 484 7.81 1.07
Sun City West 62 417 6.73 0.35
Surprise 261 1,531 5.87 0.45
Tempe 93 532 5.72 0.20
Tolleson 50 444 8.88 0.97
Waddell 9 117 13.00 -4.29
Total 4,245 36,758 8.66 0.19

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Scottsdale Tastes on a Mesa/Gilbert/Glendale Budget? You’re Not Alone

avatarthumbnail.jpgAll property searches begin in Scottsdale. Okay, not all of them. At least 5% of property searches, particularly among Canadian buyers, begin in communities other than Scottsdale, mostly because friends and family already have bought properties in other areas.

Outside of those situations, though, all property searches begin in Scottsdale. And why not? There are stores and restaurants galore, resort hotels, $10 margaritas and photo radar cameras … along with some of the higher real estate prices around.

Which is why only a small percentage of property searches that start in Scottsdale end in that fair city. Many buyers discover, as clients of mine put it last week, that they “have Scottsdale tasts on a Mesa/Gilbert budget.”

There’s nothing wrong with wanting mountain views in gated communities, world-class amenities and a Scottsdale ZIP code … as long as you’re ready for the price tag that comes along with those parcels.

Does your budget begin with a “1″? We’ll be moving along fairly quickly, unless you want a ground-floor apartment condo with a view of the parking lot.  Budgets starting with a “2″ have a bit more selection though view still will be hard to come by.

All of this is part of the ever-present give-and-take that comes when purchasing homes in the Phoenix real estate market, or any market for that matter.

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Ominous Tidings for Phoenix Real Estate Sellers

avatarthumbnail.jpgWe’re going the two-part route again … full city-by-city stats will follow later this afternoon. Ahead of that, this bit of chilling news …

Inventory continued to fall but sales fell off as well over the preceeding 30 days. Bank owned properties represent one in every 7.45 active single-family listings in the Maricopa County. Sales of bank owned homes, however, represent one in every three sales.

Someone asked online a couple of months ago, “how do you compete with a bank owned listing?” The answer, price your home like an REO. That’s where the market is right now.

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