Phoenix in the middle of recovery

Realty Times of May 8, 2009

Hot Market: Phoenix in the middle of recovery by M. Anthony Carr

A year ago, I covered the Phoenix market in this column, saying that comparing April '08 to April '07, it looked like this western market had hit bottom – sales were up 15 percent year-over-year. That prediction, seems to have been right on the nose as nearly 12 months later, sales are up a whopping 78 percent from March 2008 to March 2009.

With listings down 17 percent for the metro area, sales are siphoning off inventory and buyers are picking deals at prices they haven't seen in more than 5 years, according to blogger Ron Wilczek, West USA Realty "Another notable fact is that the year over year (YOY) sales are up for the 10th consecutive month," blogs Wilczek. "One more notable fact: the year over year over year (YOYOY) sales are up for the fourth consecutive month. I admit that I "made up" that last statistical category. But essentially it means that the sales in March 2009, February 2009, January 2009 and December 2008 were all higher than the same months for the last two years."

The foreclosure sale dominates the market, but may be a necessary evil to jump-start one of the largest markets in the southwest. Wilczek says foreclosure sales make up more than 75 percent for March 2009.

"Though March's percentage was a slight increase from February 2009's, the percentage of Phoenix foreclosure sales (Valley wide) has remained relatively stable over the last three months," he says. "This is a change from the trend we saw starting in June 2007 and lasting until December 2008. Foreclosure properties during that time sold at a steadily increasing rate each month -- sometimes by a substantial amount."

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