Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and have crafted your goals for a successful 2014.
November 2013 was a quiet month in the Phoenix real estate market, even more so than normal. We closed on 5,206 properties in the Phoenix Metro area, that is down 13.8% from October and is 23.6% lower from the same period last year.
New inventory also slowed by 22.4% to 8,304 properties. Total inventory changed very little; at the end of November the number of properties for sale was up 2.6% with 26,845 homes for sale. This is an increase of 15.6% over last year. Because the number of sales have dropped so dramatically we are at 5.2 Months Supply of Inventory. We also have a reduction in the number of homes “Under Contract but Accepting Back-up Offers”; down to 10% of the active inventory. This block of properties has been steadily declining since August 2012. The number of distressed sales has also dropped dramatically in the past year: short sales are down 74.4%, lender owned homes are down 52.7% for an average of a 66.7% reduction.
Home prices are continuing to increase. The average listed price has increased 18.2% for the past year to $312,600. The average sales price for the month of November is $236,300, an increase of 17.0% for the past year. Pending foreclosures are down another 2.2% to 6,065 properties. The average days on market stayed the same at 64 days.
The Phoenix real estate market in November experienced some equilibrium – supply and demand were balanced. I noticed that in the last few weeks of 2013 the market felt like it was accelerating. The interest in our homes listed for both sale and rent increased dramatically. Typically this is a quiet time of year for us, but this year was different. I rented two homes on the Saturday immediately after Christmas, and one of our vacant rental homes had three showings yesterday. We may be starting another crazy market.
It will be interesting to see what 2014 brings to all of us in terms of investment opportunities.
“Now is a great time to own real estate in Phoenix!”