The Maricopa County Real Estate Market Snapshot

February Market Snapshot

The average sales prices continue to rise. Active listings continue to decline based on demand. Average days on market has been consistent. Monthly supply of inventory is based on the sell through rate of homes and homes active on the market. Monthly supply is 2.54 months which is slightly up from last month and down from this time last year at 4.28 months. This is due to homes selling quickly and year over year the new inventory has decreased. According to Tom Ruff, The Information Market “Our current market can best be described as a full-blown seller’s market. Anyone waiting for prices to fall will be waiting for a while.”

We’re in store for an “interesting” prime buying/selling season. Quoting Mike Orr, from the Cromford Report “Economics 101 teaches us that lower supply and higher demand is a recipe for higher prices. I’m expecting strong price gains through June. It won’t be long before the median price home surpasses $300,000. We will also see strong year-over-year gains in sales volume through the first quarter.  So stop wasting your time reading mundane housing reports and get out there and enjoy a prosperous spring as strong tailwinds work to your advantage.”

We begin February with 6,250 pending contracts; 3,946 UCB listings and 497 CCBS, giving us a total of 10,693 residential listings practically under contract. This compares to 9,247 of the same type of listings one year ago. At the beginning of February, the “pending” contracts are 15.64% higher than last year. There were 19 business days in February of 2019 and 19 this year, even with the additional calendar day there are the same number of business days. ARMLS reported 6,409 sales in February of 2019. STAT projects 7,200 sales this February.

We are now in our home buying/home selling season. This is the time of year when the number of homes under contract rise from their holiday season lows. It’s also the time of year when prices begin their seasonal ascent.