Phoenix Area Home Sales Continue to Rise in February

Phoenix area home sales rose nearly 13% in February as compared to January of this year; and just over 14% from February of 2009.

A total of 5,559 single family detached homes were reported sold in the Phoenix area MLS, Multiple Listing Service, this February as compared to 4,929 in January of this year and 4,869 in February of 2009.

Of those sales, 5,152 or 93% were priced up to $399,999 and 407 were priced at $400,000 and above. Bank-owned or foreclosed properties accounted for just over 40% of those sales; short sales or pre-foreclosures, 23%, and just under 37% were traditional sales (not bank-owned or pre-foreclosures).

We are seeing a drop in foreclosed property sales, an increase in the number of short sales or pre-foreclosures and also an increase in the number of traditional sales.

As of today, there are 30,368 active lsitings in Maricopa County; 35,263 if we add western Pinal County and Queen Creek and there are 13,356 properties pending, which means under contract.

At the peak, we reached about 62,000 active listings about two years ago and in 2005, when prices peaked, we had only about 9,000 active listings. Real estate prices, as with most purchases, are very dependent on the law of supply and demand; the great the demand, the higher the prices and the greater the supply, the more prices are driven down.