Phoenix Region April Home Sales
The Phoenix area’s median sale price dipped slightly in April compared with March and the single-digit increase from a year earlier was the smallest in 26 months, the result of rising inventory, waning investor demand and affordability constraints. The number of homes sold was the lowest for an April in six years, a real estate information service reported.
Buyers paid a median $195,000 for all new and resale houses and condos sold during April in the combined Maricopa-Pinal counties metro area. That was down 0.5 percent from the prior month and up 8.9 percent from a year earlier. The year-over-year increase was the lowest since the median sale price rose 7.5 percent, to $129,000, in February 2012, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm, which is now owned by Irvine-based property information company CoreLogic, 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 30 consecutive months. Those gains were double-digit – as high as 32.2 percent – for 25 consecutive months ending this March. The April median was 26.2 percent below the region’s all-time peak median of $264,100 in June 2006.
Home price increases have moderated in Phoenix and 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, demand from investors has eased and some would-be buyers are struggling with credit challenges. Early last year the combination of ultra-low mortgage rates, tight inventory and high investor demand fueled steep price gains.
In April, a total of 9,008 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the two-county Phoenix region, up 12.2 percent from the month before and down 10.8 percent from a year earlier. The month-to-month increase was higher than usual. On average sales between March and April have risen 3.5 percent since 1994, when DataQuick’s complete Phoenix region statistics begin. Sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis for seven consecutive months.
This April’s total sales were 11.8 percent below average for the month of April. That's mainly because new-home sales were nearly 61 percent below the long-term April average, while resales of single-family detached houses were 0.5 percent below average and condos were 5 percent above the April average.
Between January and April this year a total of 29,761 homes sold in the Phoenix region, down 14.9 percent from the first four months of 2013. Condo resales during the first four months of this year fell 9.9 percent year-over-year, while single-family house resales fell 15.6 percent and sales of newly built homes fell 16.2 percent.
DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.
In April, activity continued to fall sharply in the Phoenix-area’s lowest price ranges, while the middle and upper-price categories posted at least modest gains in sales volume compared with a year earlier. The number of new and resale homes bought in April for less than $100,000 dropped 31.2 percent from a year earlier, while sub-$200,000 sales fell 16.9 percent. Deals between $200,000 and $600,000 – a typical move-up range – rose 3.2 percent year-over-year, while the number of homes selling for $500,000 or more rose 6.0 percent from April last year.
In the Phoenix region’s multi-million-dollar luxury home market, 89 homes sold for $2 million or more during the first four months of this year, up 36.9 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. Absentee buyers, which would include investors and vacation-home buyers, bought 29.6 percent of the homes sold in April, the same as the month before and down from 34.7 percent a year earlier. The monthly average for the absentee buyer share since January 2000 is 32.0 percent.
In April, 158 Phoenix-area buyers purchased at least two homes on the open market (excludes public foreclosure auctions on the courthouse steps). That was down from 258 multi-home buyers during April 2013, based on an analysis of buyer names in the public record. In April this year, buyers of two or more homes purchased 467 properties in the Phoenix area, which amounts to about 5 percent of all homes sold and represents a roughly 54.8 percent decline from the number of properties that multi-home buyers purchased in April last year. There were 15 buyers in April 2014 that each purchased five or more homes, and collectively they acquired 143 properties, or about 31 percent of all homes bought by multi-home buyers.
Buyers based outside of Arizona purchased 15.3 percent of all homes sold in the Phoenix region in April, down from 16.5 percent a year earlier. California-based buyers accounted for 2.5 percent of all Phoenix-area homes purchased this April, while buyers based in 46 other states collectively bought 12.3 percent. Buyers with a foreign mailing address accounted for about 0.5 percent of all sales this April. (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 April highlights, please visit DQNews.com.
Media calls: Andrew LePage (916)456-7157 or alepage@dqnews.com
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