Phoenix Real Estate Market Update – #14

For ARMLS, the new FlexMLS went live last Monday (July 28, 2008). At least it was supposed to go live Monday.  I wasn’t able to successfully enter new listings until Tuesday.  As well, many people reported that the system was slow (although I found it just fine, aside from loading photos).  One thing that is very clear with the new system, however, is that many agents just don’t seem to have caught on to the change.  Simple things like reading and following showing instructions appear to be a completely lost art.  As well, I still feel the integrity of the data in MLS is suspect, however, it seems far closer to accurate than it was last Sunday.  Note that pending sales are down dramatically for the second straight week.  While the data in MLS is probably not as accurate as usual, this trend is too significant to ignore.  Clearly the pace of buying is slowing, quite probably the result of the start of the school year, which for many Phoenix area districts begins either August 4 or August 11.

Across all of Maricopa County, there are currently 36,956 single family homes for sale, down by 425 from last week. There are 5279 sales currently pending, down by 396 from last week. And 4400 homes closed escrow in the last 30 days, up by 917 from last week. As a result, broader Maricopa County now has 8.4 months of inventory, based on this week’s numbers.

*All data comes via ARMLS, and is presumed to be reliable, but is not guaranteed. All numbers represent single family detached homes only. Condos, townhouses, timeshares, vacant land lots, and manufactured homes are not represented in these numbers. All sold properties were sold in the last 30 days.

The following trend indicators are relative to the previous week’s update:

Positive move upward Positive move downward

Negative move downward Negative move upward

.

If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to the blog