By Frank May, Real Estate Agent
I keep hearing about the national bad news in real estate, but I keep experiencing a busy market here in the Valley! Inventory dropped again these past 30 days by 6% and the number of homes that closed in a 30-day period increased by 10%. So, we continue to see more buyers for less homes. This has caused our prices to stop dropping and we saw prices increase from January into February and it should be the same for March (numbers aren’t out as I am writing this article)!
The banking ‘issues’ during March are causing the mortgage rates to get better for a while and that is stimulating buyers who were on the fence. They are hoping to get under contract quickly at a better interest rate, so this should be one more item to keep prices up and inventory down.
There are a lot of sellers who are waiting for rates to drop because they don’t want to buy their next home at such a higher interest rate than they have right now. If we see rates go lower, with some signs that they will stay that way for an extended period, then I believe we would see some inventory hit the market, which would help a lot of buyers have more choices. I don’t think this will cause inventory to get too high, as the lower rates would also mean more buyers could afford to purchase and they would be taking that inventory off the market. You can probably tell, I am a fan of dropping the interest rates a little – and keeping them there for a while.
The Upper West Side (specifically 85383) is going the same direction as the entire MLS, but our area looks even better from a homeownership standpoint. Our inventory has increased 3.8% in the past month (compared to a 6% increase overall). The number of pending homes has increased by 2.7% (compared to a 1% increase overall). And the number of homes that have sold in the past 30 days went up an incredible 45% (compared to a 10% increase overall).
People are wanting to live in the area because they have access to wonderful schools, desirable shopping, great-priced homes, incredible scenery, and easy access to freeways. And the people who are here don’t really want to move out of the area, so our increase in inventory is lower than the MLS average, while the homes going under contract are over double the average! These are fantastic indicators that are good news for the current and future residents of the area.
In other real estate news, 85383 currently has 34 homes listed at $1 million or more with the highest-priced home listed at $3,280,000! And it has 24 homes currently under contract that are over $1 million! This is an area where people want to be, so enjoy being here!
As always, feel free to contact me with any questions!
Frank May grew up in the Valley, graduating from Northwest Christian School and Northern Arizona University. He is a real estate agent with RE/MAX Fine Properties and has been helping both buyers and sellers for over 20 years. He has been a Dave Ramsey Endorsed Local Provider (ELP) since 2003. Learn more at mayteam.com.
