Phoenix Region February Home Sales
The Phoenix area posted the smallest year-over-year gain in its median sale price in two years during February as a rise in inventory and other factors helped tame price appreciation. The sales volume was the lowest for a February in five years, a real estate information service reported.
Buyers paid a median $189,000 for all new and resale houses and condos sold during February in the combined Maricopa-Pinal counties metro area. That was the same as in January and up 11.7 percent from a year earlier. The year-over-year increase in the February median was the lowest since the median sale price rose 7.5 percent, to $129,000, in February 2012, according to San Diego-based DataQuick, which tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.
The Phoenix-area’s median sale price has risen on a year-over-year basis for 28 consecutive months and those gains have been double-digit – as high as 32.2 percent – for the last 24 months. Despite those gains, the February median remained 28.1 percent below the region’s all-time peak median of $264,100 in June 2006.
Home price increases have moderated in Phoenix and in some other Western markets as the number of homes listed for sale has increased, and as higher prices and mortgage interest rates have priced out some potential buyers. In addition, credit conditions remain relatively tight and demand from investors has waned. Early last year the combination of ultra-low mortgage rates, tight inventory and high investor demand helped drive steep price gains.
In February, a total of 6,641 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the two-county Phoenix region, up 9.4 percent from the month before and down 16.3 percent from a year earlier. The month-to-month increase in sales matches the average change in sales volume between January and February since 1994, when DataQuick’s complete Phoenix region statistics begin. Sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis for five months in a row.
This February’s sales were 16.0 percent below average for the month of February. Resales of houses and condos combined were 15.9 percent below the historical average for February, while new-home sales were 58.9 percent below average.
During January and February this year a total of 12,712 homes sold in the Phoenix region, down 16.3 percent from the same two-month period in 2013. Condo resales during the first two months of this year fell 9.6 percent year-over-year, while single-family house resales fell 17.0 percent and sales of all newly built homes fell 20.0 percent.
In February, activity continued to fall sharply in the Phoenix-area’s lowest price ranges, while the middle and upper-price categories posted smaller losses or at least modest gains in sales volume compared with a year earlier. The number of new and resale homes bought in February for less than $100,000 dropped 39.1 percent from a year earlier, while sub-$200,000 sales fell 25.1 percent. Deals between $200,000 and $600,000 – a typical move-up range – dipped 0.4 percent year-over-year, while the number of homes selling for $500,000 or more rose 3.1 percent from the same month last year.
In the Phoenix region’s multi-million-dollar luxury home market, 38 homes sold for $2 million or more during the first two months of this year, up 46.2 percent from the same period last year. The figures are based on public property records, where either a price or loan amount was available.
The impact of investors, and especially large investors, on the Phoenix housing market has eased in recent months, though the percentage of homes sold to all absentee buyers edged slightly higher in February. (To some extent this is because many traditional buyers drop out of the housing market during the holidays, which translates into a higher concentration of investors closing deals in January and February). Absentee buyers, which would include investors and some vacation-home buyers, bought 31.2 percent of the homes sold in February, up a tad from 31.0 percent the month before and down from 35.0 percent a year earlier. The monthly average for the absentee buyer share since January 2000 is 32.0 percent.
In February, 116 Phoenix-area buyers purchased at least two homes on the open market (excludes public foreclosure auctions on the courthouse steps). That was down from 186 multi-home buyers during February 2013, based on an analysis of buyer names in the public record. In February this year, buyers of two or more homes purchased 321 properties in the Phoenix area, which amounts to about 4.8 percent of all homes sold and represents a roughly 57 percent decline from the number of properties that multi-home buyers purchased in February last year. There were 10 buyers in February 2014 that each purchased five or more homes, and collectively they acquired 82 properties, or about 26 percent of all homes bought by multi-home buyers.
Buyers based outside of Arizona purchased 14.5 percent of all homes sold in the Phoenix region in February, down from 17.0 percent a year earlier. California-based buyers accounted for 3.0 percent of all Phoenix-area homes purchased this February, while buyers based in 46 other states collectively bought 11.1 percent. Buyers with a foreign mailing address accounted for about 0.4% percent of all sales this February. (Note: Some foreign buyers use a U.S. mailing address in public records, hence not all sales to foreign buyers can be tracked this way.)
To view other Phoenix area February highlights, visit DQNews.com.
Media calls: Andrew LePage (916)456-7157 or alepage@dqnews.com
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