Phoenix Region June Home Sales
The median price paid for a Phoenix-area home approached a five-year high in June as foreclosure resales continued to fade and move-up activity remained relatively strong. Total home sales dropped month-to-month and year-over-year, however, as investor purchases fell and buyers in more affordable areas continued to struggle with low inventory, a real estate information service reported.
Buyers paid a median $188,000 for all new and resale houses and condos sold during June in the combined Maricopa-Pinal counties metro area. That was the region’s highest median sale price since the median was $190,000 in August 2008. June’s median was up 1.7 percent from May and up 23.7 percent from June 2012, according to San Diego-based DataQuick, which tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.
The Phoenix-area median has risen year-over-year for 20 consecutive months and those gains have been double-digit for the last 16 months. The June median was still 28.8 percent below the region’s all-time peak of $264,100 in June 2006.
The year-over-year gains in the Phoenix-area’s median sale price have ranged from 7.5 percent to 32.2 percent, and reflect several trends. Prices have risen as greater demand has met a relatively low supply of homes for sale. But the median, the point where half of the homes sold for more and half for less, has also risen because of a large shift in the types of homes selling: More selling today are mid- to high-priced homes, and far fewer are lower-cost foreclosed properties.
If demand remains high and prices continue to rise, the market will eventually respond with a larger supply of homes for sale, which would tame price appreciation. More would-be sellers who've held out for higher prices will put their homes on the market. Fewer people will owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, enabling them to sell. Sales of new homes will likely rise.
In June, a total of 9,466 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the two-county Phoenix region, down 12.2 percent from the month before and down 1.8 percent from a year earlier.
In the Phoenix area sales usually rise between May and June. On average since 1994, when DataQuick’s complete Phoenix region statistics begin, the number of homes sold in June has been 11.0 percent higher than in May.
This June’s sales were 12.6 percent below average for the month of June, but that reflects historically weak new-home sales, which were about 51 percent below average. Resales of houses and condos combined this June were about 31 percent above the historical average for the month of June.
Home sales continued to fall sharply in the Phoenix-area’s lowest price ranges, while the middle and upper-price categories posted significant gains. There are two reasons for this: Move-up buying has increased this year, and steep price appreciation means, for example, that many homes that would have sold for less than $100,000 a year ago would now sell for more than that.
The number of new and resale homes that sold in June for less than $100,000 dropped 50.5 percent from a year earlier, while sub-$150,000 sales fell 34.2 percent and sub-$200,000 sales fell 19.3 percent. Deals between $200,000 and $600,000 jumped 33.1 percent year-over-year, while the number of homes selling for $800,000 or more rose 33.8 percent from the same month last year.
To view additional Phoenix June stats, visit DQNews.com.
Media calls: Andrew LePage (916)456-7157 or alepage@dqnews.com
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