Phoenix Existing Home Sales Continue Robust Pace

July 29, 2011 (Shirley Allen)

Existing home sales in Phoenix continued at a robust pace in June, reaching six year highs for the second consecutive month, while home prices see their first monthly increase in a year according to real estate information provider DataQuick.

A total of 10,537 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Maricopa-Pinal counties area in June. Sales were 8.3 percent higher than in May and 1.5 percent higher than June of 2010. Existing home sales were at their highest level since 2005.

New home sales continued to be the weak link, accounting for only 796 of the total sales, the lowest level of new home sales for a June in 14 years.

Existing single-family detached homes and condos made up 9,741 of the total sales last month, 7.1 percent more than last year and 16.7 percent higher than the average for June.

Cash buyers were responsible for 40.8 percent of the purchases in June, which was down from 42.0 percent in May, but up from 33.6 percent a year earlier. The record for cash purchases was in February 2011, when 48 percent of the sales were for cash.

The price that cash buyers are paying continues to decline as the median price paid by a cash buyer in June was $88,700, which is down from $90,000 in May and down from $110,000 in June 2010.

Absentee buyers, usually investors and vacation home buyers, accounted for 44.0 percent of all homes sold in June and they paid a median average price of $100,000 during the month.

The overall median price paid for new and resale homes and condos in June was $122,900, which was an increase from $120,000 in May, the first monthly price increase since June 2010. The median price was still 12.2 percent below June of last year.

The current median price is 53.5 percent below the peak median price of $264,100 in June 2006 and has fallen year-over-year for the last 13 consecutive months.

Distressed sales represented 63.7 percent of the resale market in June as foreclosures accounted for 49.6 percent of the distressed sales and short sales accounted for 14.1 percent of the distressed sales.

Foreclosures fell 1.5 percent from May to June with lenders foreclosing on 4,794 single-family homes and condos last month. Foreclosures are down 12.3 percent compared to June of 2010.

Tags: DataQuick, existing home sales, Phoenix, distressed properties, resale homes, condos, cash buyers, investors, median price

Source:
DataQuick