There’s a lot being written about the Phoenix Real Estate market as analysts and practitioners try to describe or predict what’s happening.
In my opinion, the market is sputtering on the price front but continues a brisk pace on a volume basis. To me any month with greater than 9000 closings is an outstanding month. May of 2010 was only the 15th month with over 9000 closings in the last 9 ½ years-that’s 113 months if you’re counting. June will probably be the 16th month with a chance of being the 4th month over 10,000 and possibly the highest month on record (The current #1 is June of 2005 with 10,252). All those ‘beat the tax deadline’ closings will motivate buyers and lenders to “get’em closed” this month.
Pendings and AWC’s continue high with 12,400 and 7700 respectively; that’s over 20,000 properties currently in escrow. Life without a tax credit won’t start until next month and then we’ll see how an unsubsidized real estate market reacts.
So to review May: 9100 closings-with only 20 business days in the month; 37% or 3350 were Bank Owned (REO’s); Short Sales (SS) accounted for 22% or 2000 closings. The real story with SS’s is the 4100 in Pending status and the 7100 in AWC status. When these 11,000 properties currently in escrow close, the percentages will have changed dramatically. Go to our blog for a Mike Orr report on Short Sales courtesy of Old Republic Title. Mike does a great job providing details on SS’s by analyzing them from both a supply and demand point of view, breaking them down by zip code. Also he compares SS’s to REO’s by price range. It’s a good report to refer to, if you have an appraiser or bank that needs information about SS’s specific to a zip code.
Another new statistical report came out this month called STAT. ARMLS provides the report and they have an advanced predictor of prices. You can get this report from your flexmls dashboard or click right here.
Also in our Real Estate Market section you will find our chart tracking Tom Ruff’s foreclosure numbers. The chart shows that New Notices of Trustee Sales are down 21% for the first 5 months of 2010 compared to 2009; Completed foreclosures are up 16% ; Pending Foreclosures are down 13% since the first of the year; and the biggest change is 70% more Cancelled in 2010 than the first 5 months last year. The current number of Bank Owned properties in Maricopa County is 16,301, which is made up of 5200 Active listings; 3850 are Pending; and the balance of 7250 are waiting to be marketed.
