March 8, 2012 (Shirley Allen)

The Phoenix housing market continued to show signs of a recovery in January as new and existing home sales posted their best numbers since 2009 and 2006, respectively, and home prices were up year-over-year for the second consecutive month according to the latest housing data released from DataQuick.

A total of 7,123 new and existing homes and condos closed escrow in the Maricopa-Pinal counties area in January. Sales were 17.9 percent lower than in December but were still 3.2 percent higher than the number of homes sold in January of 2011.

Home sales typically decline 21.7 percent between December and January and were only 3.1 percent below the average number of homes typically sold in January.

New homes sales were 31.3 percent higher than in the same month last year, their highest since January 2009, but were still well below what is average for the month. Sales of existing homes were 17.5 percent higher than the January average and made their best showing for the month since 2006.

Cash buyers accounted for 45.8 percent of all purchases in January, up from 41.0 percent in December but down from 46.0 percent a year earlier. The record for cash purchases was in February 2011, when 48 percent of the sales were for cash.

The price that cash buyers paid for their purchases increased to $97,700 in January, which was up slightly from $94,900 in December and $88,854 in January of 2011.

The overall median price paid for new and resale homes and condos in January was $127,500, down 1.2 percent from December but 7.1 percent higher than in January of last year. It was the second consecutive month that home prices have increased year-over-year following 17 months of declines.

The current median price is 51.9 percent below the peak median price of $264,100 in June 2006.

Distressed property sales accounted for 52.1 percent of the re-sale market in January, with foreclosure sales accounting for 36.3 percent of all re-sales, down from 37.7 percent in December, and short sales accounting for 15.8 percent of all re-sales, down from 17.2 percent in December. Distressed property sales were at their lowest level since June 2008.

Foreclosures fell 9.2 percent from December to January and were down 41.3 percent from January of 2011.

Tags: existing home sales, Phoenix, distressed properties, resale homes, condos, cash buyers, investors, median price

Source:
DataQuick