phoenix foreclosures

Phoenix real estate prices close to the bottom

 For the first time in a few years, we are starting to see encouraging articles appear in the local media about our real estate market.  This past week, I actually see three separate articles in a two day span with good news. 
 
The first article was titled “Pending home sales, prices on the rise” .  This article appeared in the Phoenix Business Journal.    The article quotes local real estate market analyst Michael Orr.  Orr, author of the Cromford Report, said that the January rise in pending home sales is a critical recovery indicator for Arizona’s real estate market.  Orr said the latest report shows pending sales in the Metro Phoenix area hit a record 9,883 in the first week of January 2010 – a 79 percent increase over the 5,350 from a year ago.
 
The second article, also in the Phoenix Business Journal, stated that Phoenix home values were up 1.1% from October of 2009 to November of 2009.
 
The third article, written by J. Craig Anderson at azcentral.com, quoted Arizona State University professor Karl Guntermann who publishes the monthly ASU Repeat Sales Index housing report.  Guntermann said, for the first time since the foreclosure crisis began, the price of a Phoenix area foreclosed home was roughly the same as it was a year ago.  Guntermann said that in December, based on early numbers, the annual decline in price was down to 2%.  That does not hold true for the non-foreclosure market which is still declining at an annual rate of 20% according to Guntermann. 
 
Signs are beginning to point to the possibility that we could start seeing a slight and slow recovery in local real estate values in 2010.