Maricopa County Housing market showing some life

New-home sales in Maricopa County were down significantly from a year earlier during the first quarter, according to The Arizona Republic's latest quarterly housing snapshot, based on numbers from realty studies at Arizona State University and Mesa-based Ion Data.

Sales of new homes fell by about 24 percent from the first quarter of 2010, from 1,530 sales to 1,170 sales.

Meanwhile, existing-home sales increased slightly from a year earlier, accompanied by a decrease in median-sale price, according to the data.

Total sales volume for existing homes in the first quarter was 16,535 transactions, an increase of almost 8 percent from 15,335 sales during the same period in 2010.

Housing analyst Jim Belfiore, president of Phoenix-based Belfiore Real Estate Consulting, said the increase was especially encouraging because it came primarily from an increase in "move-up" buyers: those with existing homes who are selling in order to buy a larger or nicer home.

"I'd attribute that to consumer confidence being higher overall," he said.

The decrease in new-home sales occurred primarily because the 2011 new-home-buying season got off to a late start compared with the previous year, when there was still some momentum from a now-expired federal tax credit for new buyers.

Belfiore said new-home sales picked up significantly in the latter half of March and have remained strong through the first three weeks of April.

The median sale price for new homes in the first quarter was $222,450, a 2 percent decrease from the median price of $227,115 in the first quarter of 2010, according to ASU's realty studies at the W.P. Carey School of Business.

The median sale price for existing homes decreased by about 11 percent, from $140,000 in the first quarter of 2010 to $125,175 during the same period a year later.

Realty-studies professor Jay Butler said he was concerned that the continued decline in median home prices would push some homeowners who are upside-down on their mortgages to give up and walk away, particularly those who were exhausting all other financial resources to make the mortgage payments.

"There's a high level of frustration out there," Butler said.

There were 11,425 foreclosures in the first quarter of 2011, up slightly from 11,190 foreclosures during the same period a year earlier.

However, pre-foreclosure notices were down considerably, from 18,245 notices issued in the first quarter of 2010 to 15,232 notices issued during the same period a year later.

Butler said the decrease in new notices seemed logical after four years of heavy foreclosure activity.

"First of all, you've foreclosed on 11 percent of the homes in the Valley, so you've got to be running out of properties to foreclose on," he said.

by J. Craig Anderson The Arizona Republic Apr. 24, 2011 12:00 AM




Maricopa County Housing market showing some life