Leif Swanson

Real Estate Statistics - November 23, 2009 update:

Bank-Owned Active Listings: There are only 4,707 active bank-owned foreclosure listings in all of the Phoenix metro area, an increase of 100 over last week. There has been less than a one-month’s supply of foreclosure listings in the Phoenix metro area for the past 5 months. Bank-owned properties only account for 14% of all active listings.

Pending sales (properties currently under contract): Currently, there are 11,892 pending sales in the Phoenix metro area plus an additional 6,411 contingency sales (shaky contracts). The total number of properties under contract today is 18,303. This number has remained fairly steady for the past 3 months.

More and more buyers are lured into making offers on short sale listings. Currently 9,708 properties under contract are short sale listings, or 53% of the total market in the Phoenix area. This number grows every week because the listings are not converting to actual sales; it’s like being in limbo forever. Banks are taking 3-4 months to make a decision on short sale contracts and even then the percent that is actually approved is minimal. Over 25% of all active listings are short sale properties.

Inventory: Inventory has been climbing lately. There are currently 33,697 active listings in MLS as of November 23, 2009, up 367 since last week. Usually inventory declines during the holiday season. We are still in a seller’s market in the under-$250,000 price range.

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Let’s look at Phoenix, Arizona specifically.

For the city of Phoenix only, as of November 23, 2009. Numbers are based on the orange 90-day lines. However, check out the black lines (7-day trends). The Phoenix real estate market has shifted to a seller’s market.

Median sales price for Phoenix properties: $179,601 (down $77 in the past week). It is an odd occurrence. We should see a jump in prices in November as buyers scrambled to buy and qualify for the first-time homebuyers’ tax credit that expires November 30.

Inventory of properties for sale in Phoenix: 5,814, down only 16 since last week. Phoenix is seeing a decrease while the rest of the metro area has an increase in inventory. See how the market supply has shrunk this year. Amazing.

Median price per square foot for Phoenix properties: $97/sqft, down $1 in the past week.