THE PHOENIX HOUSING MARKET STABILIZES AS SELLERS YANK LISTINGS NATIONWIDE
Peggie Simmons
M
arkets all over the country are in chaos. Buyers have been locked in their homes, and sellers are not listing for fear of selling during an economic crisis. While that is true for most areas, one market remains standing, defying all odds. The housing market in Phoenix appears to stay afloat; however, many real estate professionals say that the pandemic has brought change to the Phoenix market needed. While the Metro Phoenix market is healthy, that doesn’t mean that the economic downturn in the country will leave it unscathed. In the past few weeks listing have climbed 20%, which is a clear indication that the homeowners are struggling financially and are hoping to get out of their mortgages or short-term rental owners who do not have customers and are looking to sell. The number of homes for sale is still 32% below the same time last year according to an Arizona Housing expert Tina Tamboer of the Cromford Report. Nonetheless, most experts agree that for the coming months, the Phoenix housing market, like most others, will hunker down.
“People aren’t moving now, and that means they aren’t buying homes,” Elliott PollackVeteran Arizona economist said. “’ Phoenix’s strong population growth was driving the housing market. That’s over until this crisis is over.”
RE-SETTING THE MARKET In overall, however, the market itself is looking to be doing what it was needed to do, and most real estate experts say that the Phoenix market is in a state of reset. Before the pandemic hit, there were just 10,000 homes available for sale in the Phoenix market, with only a few houses in the market, that meant that most buyers were kept out of reach. Remember the Phoenix market has about 7 million people, and having just 10,000 properties for sale, was a meager number. Since the coronavirus hit, the number of homes has jumped to more than 14,000 available units of purchase. This just shows that the market is headed in the right direction since a stable housing market should at least have 20,000 to 25,000 units available which is good news for the buyers. This just shows how serious the seller is, after all, who would want to sell their home during a pandemic? Over the years, we have seen the median home prices rise rapidly, in April 2018, the median home price for homes in and around the Phoenix market area was $255,000. In 2019, it jumped to just over $267,500, and in March 2020, it was just under $299,400. What will happen is that, with more units available for sale in the market, the home prices will stabilize. And while it is still a seller’s market, we shouldn’t be worried about that. What’s truly interesting with the Phoenix housing market is that even though there are more houses for sale in the market, homes are being shown through virtual tours instead of open-house tours. l
43
