Are there more or fewer homes for sale in your zip code?
Is the median list price increasing or decreasing in your zip code?
For all the numbers people out there who love this blog, it’s Christmas. We have more numbers!
Today’s issues of Home Sale News were the first to link to individual web pages showing 1) the median list price, 2) the inventory of homes for sale, and 3) the average days on market for unsold homes, for each zip code in Maricopa county.
The pages are also available from a link in the sidebar of this blog as show above.
The Data
These Listing Trends charts should be taken with a big grain of salt. As mentioned near the bottom of each zip code Listings Trends page, the graphs are not based directly on official MLS data. The data is gathered or “scrapped” from Realtor.com by the company I buy the graphs from. Realtor.com, however, uses official MLS data.
This indirect process adds a lot of opportunities for errors. For example, in one zip code I checked the inventory number in the chart was 12% higher than the real number. And I don’t trust their average days on market numbers yet. These charts, unfortunately, are not available with official MLS data.
Nevertheless, the numbers should be similar and certainly the charts should give us an idea of whether an MLS listing trend is going up, down or sideways, and that’s probably about as far as you want to trust the charts.
discoveries
It’s been fun starting to explore these charts. The biggest surprise for me so far has been Sun City West.
The median home price in Sun City West has been absolutely pummeled. Sun City West has often had the biggest year over year decline of any city in metro Phoenix.
Now, is seems there is a real possibility that Sun City West may be past the worst of it.
Check out the 85375 (Sun City West) inventory of homes listed for sale.
Historically, U.S. real estate markets that were most overpriced tended to correct more quickly than less overpriced markets. The same effect may happen within the sub-markets of metro Phoenix. That is, those sub-markets that fall the fastest like Queen Creek and Maricopa may be the first to recover. Hey, it could happen.
Merry Christmas to all of the numbers people who read this blog!