NEW SALES NUMBERS ARE OUT, LOOKING GOOD

I track the market here in the Phoenix Metro area on a weekly basis since January 2005. I wish I had been looking at these trends prior to that time. Available homes for sale dropped by 350 over night. That is due to the listings for homes for sale expiring. Many of them will re list over the next week or so. What I see that is very encouraging is homes sales increasing. DEMAND is returning to the market. Last week, ending Monday at 3 pm, I recorded 863 Single Family Home, SFH, sales for the week. That was a 7.7% increase over the previous week and that week was up 18% over the week before. Even better, 863 SFH sales last was week was the highest week I have recorded since the week of June 18, 2007, when I recorded 893 sales.

In 2003, we averaged 1,257 sales per week all year. But in the peak months, March thru August, we averaged 1,405 sales per week. I think a return to the sales levels of 2003 is our goal. I look forward to hitting 1,000 sales per week and then moving on and hitting that average of 1,257. It will be a wonderful sign to go over 1,405 sales per week. The next 6 months are imperative to our market. We need lower interest rates, lower prices, more financial options to return(liquidity) and consumer confidence. Those factors will bring our market back into a supply and demand balance, thus stop the decline of property values. I do believe it will be years before we see price appreciation in the outlying areas like Surprise, Anthem and Maricopa. But buyers purchasing in those areas bought to get more house for the money, not to increase equity.