Arizona Real Estate

If economic growth statistics are any indication, Arizona foreclosure percentages continue to decline. Overall, in June and July of 2009 research by Metrostudy.com showed major growth in new home starts and existing home sales. In the second quarter of 2009 Phoenix-area contractors and builders started 1,654 homes, which was 58 percent more than in the first quarter of 2009. This information comes on the tail of news that shows in June of 2009 home sales rose and Phoenix foreclosures fell. According to a study by the Arizona State University Realty Studies department foreclosure activity in May represented 30 percent of all transactions. In February that percentage hit a high of 51 percent. Overall this is good news for a state that has struggled in the current real estate market.

The news for Arizona and more specifically Phoenix isn’t all positive, though. In early April, Arizona was ranked number two for foreclosures by RealtyTrac.com. They further placed Phoenix foreclosures at ninth in the United States. Only Nevada was ranked higher over the duration of this time period. During the first half of the year, Arizona real estate suffered and Phoenix foreclosures were 52 percent higher than during the same time in 2008. This placed the Phoenix foreclosure rate at 4.4 percent, which was 3.2 percent higher than the national average. This news for the Arizona real estate market followed an encouraging June report by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price index that found a slowing in the recent slide of Phoenix home values.

R.L. Brown Reports, an Arizona-based research firm showed in The Phoenix Housing Market Letter that the Arizona real estate market was showing promising signs of growth in a comparison between February and March. Home sales between those two months rose by nearly 200. While these numbers are still down from 2008 it’s an encouraging sign for a market that has sought to stabilize itself in a struggling economy. In another sign of stabilization R.L. Brown reported that home resales were up. The downside of this information is that 67 percent of the resales in the Arizona real estate market were from bank-owned properties. This mixed news shows that while the Arizona foreclosure rate may be high, that the Arizona real estate market is slowly becoming more stable.

Fortunately for buyers, while mortgage interest rates have risen slightly, they are still relatively low making the idea of new home ownership an enticing notion. Also in the Arizona real estate market’s favor is that in the past, summer has continuously proven to be the strongest part of the year for home purchases.

Overall it appears that Arizona foreclosures and Phoenix foreclosures may very well be dropping and that the Arizona real estate market is stabilizing and that the demand for new and resale homes is up. Under the current circumstances of an economy that is only now beginning to show signs of recovery this news is excellent and bodes well for a market that has struggled significantly over the last 12 months.