By Mike Bodeen · 6 February 2017
With a full month behind us, we start the 2017 sales season in earnest. We have good news for sellers but unfortunately, that often translates into bad news for buyers who are not yet not in the game. And that is now the case.
The basic ARMLS sales numbers effective February 1, 2017 and compared with February 1, 2016 for all areas & types:
Active Residential Listings: 19,863 versus 22,096 last year – down 10.1% – but up 2.4% from 19,397 last month
Under Contract Listings (including Pending, CCBS & UCB): 9,864 versus 9,323 last year – up 5.8% – and up 26.4% from 7,801 last month
Monthly Sales: 6,006 versus 5,175 last year – up 16.1% – but down 16.0% from 7,153 last month
Monthly Average Sales Price per Sq. Ft.: $146.49 versus $139.24 last year – up 5.2% – and up 1.1% from $144.89 last month
Monthly Median Sales Price: $225,000 versus $210,000 last year – up 7.1% – but unchanged from $225,000 last month
Overall supply is weaker than last year. Demand is stronger. January is always a slow month for closings, but a total over 6,000 is the first we have seen since January 2012 and only the fourth to occur this century. The growth in contracts has not been as strong as the growth in closings, but under contract listing counts are up 5.8% from last year.
New listings have been arriving at a slower rate than last year, adding to the problems faced by buyers. Although the overall number of active listings excluding pending and under contract increased by 2.4% during the month, this is an unusually low growth for January and many areas have experienced an unexpected decline in listings over the past 31 days.
This imbalance between supply and demand is true throughout most of the low and mid price ranges, but is less of a factor in the higher price areas, particularly in the outer locations. While this imbalance persists, it is likely to lead to further price rises. We saw a substantial 1.1% rise in the average price per sq. ft. during last month, but the median sales price remained flat for the second month. The average price per sq. ft. is a better reflection of what is going on.
Once again, we cannot stress too much the importance of buyer’s initiating their home search sooner rather than later.
Thanks again to Michael Orr of the Cromford Report that mad scientist of Phoenix home data crunching for the foregoing amazing stats.
Mortgage rates: 30 Year Amortized: 4.25% — 15 Year Amortized: 3.5%
*Mortgage rates adjust daily. The above quoted rates are averages.
Market data referenced in this article comes from The Cromford Report.