Maricopa Arizona Weekly Housing Report – 15MAR
The flu bug has me sidelined for a couple of days but I’m back and reporting on activity in the Maricopa AZ market from last week.
ACTIVES: 538, down from 559. After a week of stability, the number of active listings of homes in Maricopa’s subdivisions contniued it’s downward slide. Due to seasonal buyer activity, single level homes in particular are getting very scarce. The end result is that values have been driven up and many buyers are paying 20% or more over appraisal. It still remains to be seen when lenders will begin to release their backlog of inventory of foreclosed homes.
SHORT SALES: 220, down from 233. Lack of inventory has continued to force buyers to seek short sales as an alternative. The amount of short sales in Maricopa Arizona has been in decline since OCT 2010. Though new short sale listings are entering the marketplace, the rate is much slower than last year. Many homeowners are still “on the fence” as to what to do with their distressed proprties.
LENDER OWNED: 85, down from 98. As expected, the inventory of lender owned homes continues to decline. The slow release of foreclosures by the lenders cannot keep pace with the seasonal buying activity.
AWC (Short sales with offers): 215, up from 208. More evidence of buyers shifting their focus to short sales due to lack of inventory. This is the highest number of short sales under contract since JUNE 2010.
PENDING: 378, up from 373. The highest number I have seen since I began tracking the Maricopa AZ homes market in APR 2010.
CLOSED: 53, up from 48. Another strong number that should continue considering the number of PENDING sales. I expect closings to remain strong for at least another month, maybe longer.
AUCTION: 23, stable from 25. The number of homes available at the trustee sale remains seady.
SUMMARY: Not a whole lot has changed since the first of the year. Buying activity is strong and the influx of new listings has not been able to keep up. It is getting very difficult to find quality homes, especially single level homes. As a result, buyers are willing to pay over “comp” value and values will most likely ivcrease a bit. That being said, unless everyone’s estmates are wrong (including my own) a double dip is in the horizon when the lenders finally begin ro release their backlog of shadow inventory.
View the whole Monthly home data.
