By Mike Bodeen · 27 November 2017
Periodically, we provide you with Michael Orr’s Cromford Report Analysis of annual appreciation rates. This is based on a city’s price per square Foot (psf) over the previous year. Forty-one cities are included in the table below. There are some interesting takeaways from this latest data, and of course you can spot other interesting facts including where your city falls into the mix.
Of no surprise is that Paradise Valley (PV) continues to dominate the top spot for the highest price per square foot ($355 psf), as it has for years, and no doubt for years to come. PV’s annual appreciation however is but 2.8%. Second place in the highest price psf has changed from Carefree ($237 psf) to Scottsdale ($241 psf). Carefree was only one of two cities that lost value this past year (-1.5%). That trend is currently changing however as Carefree sales have heated up while listing supply has dropped there.
The Northeast Valley has the top six highest prices in the Valley. Besides the top 3 listed above, Fountain Hills, Cave Creek, and Rio Verde round out the top six slots. Only PV, Scottsdale, and Carefree topped the $200 psf range.
Interestingly, the only other city to drop in value was Tonopah, dropping a hefty 6% over the past year. Why is that interesting? Well, it’s interesting due to our blog of two weeks ago reporting Bill Gates’ investment arm purchasing 20,000 acres for 80 million in… Tonopah! That’s right, the city that showed the largest value drop in the Phoenix Metro area over the past year may perhaps become the city with the largest amount of appreciation when this is reviewed again one year from now. How do you spell s-p-e-c-u-l-a-t-i-o-n?
Which cities had the highest appreciation? The highest appreciation rate (21%) went to the city of Coolidge. Say where? Coolidge also has the distinction of being the least expensive city to live in at $73 psf. Other double-digit appreciation cities include Wickenburg (18%), Eloy (10%), El Mirage (13%), and Arizona City (12%). See, if you weren’t reading our blog, you might never know any of these cities existed!
Phoenix, at $155 psf including 5.2% appreciation was the 10th highest price psf in the valley, and near the state average. Many zip codes, particularly the affordable ones, went much higher.
Market data referenced in this article comes from The Cromford Report.