Dr. Jay Butler of Realty Studies at Arizona State University came out with his Phoenix area residential real estate sales and median home price numbers for September 2010.
Greater Phoenix – Median Home Price
(Single-family resale homes. Excludes repossessions but includes sales by banks after they repossess. ASU calls these “Traditional Sales”)
September 2010: $135,000
September 2009: $140,000
The median price was stable in September ($135,000), the same as in August ($135,000), after tanking since June ($143,000).
I’m guessing we’ve seen most of the price declines we’ll see from the $8,000 first-time tax credit.
The median home price in Maricopa County bottomed out in April 2009 at $125,000 and rose 15% to peak at $144,000 in April and May 2010. The median home price is now down 6% from the peak.
Greater Phoenix – Number of Homes Sold
(Single-family resale homes. Excludes repossessions but includes sales by banks after they repossess. ASU calls these “Traditional Sales”)
September 2010: 4,895
September 2009: 6,135
On the other hand, you can see that single family home sales were way down this September, down 20%, compared to September 2009. That can’t be good for the future median home price.
NOTE: Dr. Butler’s ASU data measures median home price. He doesn’t measure home price appreciation directly, although the median price follows appreciation very closely. Case-Shiller data, however, directly measures home price appreciation and depreciation. Dr. Guntermann at ASU uses the same technique as Case-Shiller but Dr. Guntermann breaks down the data further to look at appreciation in the major cities within metro Phoenix as well as metro Phoenix as a whole. Case-Shiller and Guntermann release their numbers 2 months after the end of a month while Butler releases his numbers 2 weeks after the end of a month.