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Sellers rejoice. The residential real estate market in the City of Phoenix is firmly in your command. Buyers though are less enthusiastic these days.
As the September 2017 graph above shows, limited local housing supply continues to drive up home prices for home buyers. So far this season, sellers are getting higher dollar offers, and the average time a home sits on the market has shortened considerably.
More money in less market time turns a balanced market into a seller’s market. It also increases competing offer scenarios.
How Today Compares
As of today, September 10th, there are 3,076 single-family MLS listings on the market in the City of Phoenix. This is down from 3 years ago this month when 5,250 listings of the same type were available. That’s a 41% drop in the single-family housing inventory over the last 36 months.
In an environment of attractively low mortgage rates, a strengthening economy, and a shrinking supply of homes, buyers feel pinched.
Home Buyers Are Hesitant
I have several first-time and move-up buyers who have looked but who have put the brakes on their Phoenix home search. There is not enough of a selection out there right now to make them want to clinch the deal.
The data in the chart above reflect current real estate dynamics for the single-family housing market within the City of Phoenix proper. This visualization does not include other cities in the metro, although their charts appear very similar. Glendale, Mesa, Chandler, and Scottsdale are all experiencing tight housing supply. This is especially true under the $250,000 price point, where first-time buyers hunt.
Home Buyers Beat the Odds
Home shopping? Although inventory is low and home prices are up, many buyers are still focused on locking in these unusually low mortgage interest rates. Click here to see the current inventory of Phoenix homes available for sale.
Teach a parrot the terms ‘supply and demand’ and you’ve got an economist.
– Thomas Carlyle, 19th-century Scottish philosopher
