Real Estate Market Activity for the Phoenix, Arizona and Surrounding Areas

Average Home Prices: The average sales price of a single family home prices fell 7% from February 2009 and 46% from March 2008.

Average Home Sales Price in the East Valley: The news is not so gloomy in the East Valley as declining inventory levels are stabilizing prices.  Home prices in Queen Creek and Gilbert are starting to edge up and overall the rate of decline is much less in the East Valley than in the Phoenix Metro area as a whole.

Months of Inventory: Inventory levels are shrinking as sales volume increases.  The rule of thumb for a Buyer's Market vs a Seller's Market is that Buyer's have the advantage when inventory is more than 6 months and Seller's have the advantage with the inventory is less than 6 months. Note that these figures include short sale listings which are very slow to move so the actual inventory that is selling is going to be lower.  The general feeling is that the tide is shifting towards the Buyer's advantage.

Types of Transactions: The vast majority of the homes sold in the Phoenix Metro area last month were bank-owned properties, or REO's.  Bank-owned properties currently make up 21% of the inventory yet accounted for 66% of the homes sold.  Although short sales make up 22% of the current inventory, only 10% of the homes sold last month were short sales.  Bank-owned properties have dominated the Phoenix real estate market for the last four months where they are often sold very quickly with multiple offers.