The Case-Shiller housing price index is the best for looking at home price appreciation. Unfortunately, they only had one index number for all of metro Phoenix.
You can’t use Case-Shiller to compare the differing appreciation rates within metro Phoenix. We know there are wide variations within metro Phoenix but not exactly where and by how much.
In rides Dr. Karl Guntermann at Arizona State University’s Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice in the W.P. Carey School of Business who just released the ASU Repeat Sale Index of home price appreciation. [FYI: This Center is different from Dr. Jay Butler’s office which is called Realty Studies.]
Guntermann took the statistical analysis method used by Case-Shiller and others and applied it to metro Phoenix and our area cities that have enough sales to calculate the Index.
It’s a good day for real estate geeks!
Let’s zoom in on recent history.
I’m sure I’m going to be talking about the Repeat Sale Index a lot in the future.
For now, the Index clearly shows that Scottsdale home prices leveled off earlier than the other cities but they have been pretty much flat since then while prices in other cities have seen some significant declines in prices.