Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Phoenix Continues Its Run As Strong Housing Market


The housing market in Phoenix continued its run as one of the hottest real estate markets in the U.S. last month.

Sales of previously owned homes and condominiums hit their highest level for a November in seven years. The median home price for the Phoenix area hit $167,500 last month, a four-year high, according to real estate firm DataQuick.

The median price was up 4.7% from October and up 31.9% from November 2011 -- marking the 12th consecutive month with a year-over-year gain.

“Prices have risen as greater demand has met a relatively low supply of homes for sale,” DataQuick said in a news release. “But the median has also been pushed higher by a big shift in the types of homes selling this year compared with last. More homes selling today are higher-cost move-up homes and fewer are lower-cost foreclosed properties.”

The decline in foreclosed homes selling on the market has helped the area recover. Foreclosure resales — sales of homes that were foreclosed on in the last year — fell to 17.2% of the area's home resale market last month. That was the lowest level since December 2007 and down sharply from March 2009, when foreclosures accounted for 66.2% of homes sold in the Phoenix area.

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