Home prices up in 5 areas - USATODAY.com

Scottsdale's housing market is showing improvement, with median home prices up 13 percent in June over last year and a drop in investor flips, short sales and pre-foreclosure deals.

Prices were up year-over-year in five of the six Northeast Valley communities, with increases ranging from 18.7 percent in Cave Creek on 87 sales to 39 percent in Paradise Valley on 42 sales, according to the latest monthly report from the Arizona State University Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice.

Fountain Hills showed an 11 percent dip in median price to $320,000 on 58 sales.

It has not helped that the number of short sales and pre-foreclosures in the town doubled to 12 in June and investor flips doubled to four.

Scottsdale reported 85 short sales and pre-foreclosures in June, a 13 percent decline. That runs counter to the greater Phoenix market, which saw distressed sales up 8 percent.

Scottsdale also showed a steep decline in bank-owned homes from 79 last June to 31 this year, according to the report with data compiled by the Information Market LLC of Glendale.

"The continued imbalance between high demand and low supply remains the main story for the greater Phoenix residential market," the report said. "After a strong move upward during the spring, prices remained relatively flat during June, as predicted last month. We expect to report something similar next month."

The number of home sales in Scottsdale dipped 12 percent in June to 561 deals.

Scottsdale's price per square foot for homes was $183.13, up 6.5 percent, and significantly higher than the overall market average of $98.11.

The condominium and townhouse median price of $90,000 in the overall market was up 32 percent from a year ago.

Scottsdale's median price for condos of $142,000 on 281 sales was up 13.6 percent.

By Peter Corbett, The Republic|azcentral.com Aug 18, 2012



Home prices up in 5 areas - USATODAY.com