Foreclosure sales dominate Valley

Catherine Reagor and the Republic, reported today that home prices fell .006% from December to January. Tomorrow, I will be working on the March numbers and have a report for you after the holiday weekend! Keeping you up to date on the numbers for today, NOW! I am really looking forward to seeing what the numbers tell us about our real estate market. Until then, take a look below at Cathrine’s report, including new home sales. Thanks Catherine!

Foreclosure sales dominate Valley
by Catherine Reagor – Mar. 31, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Foreclosures continue to drive indicators and much of the news about the Phoenix housing market.

• Homebuilding and new-home sales remain near historic lows due to the many foreclosure homes being resold. In February, there were 532 new houses sold in the Valley, according to the “Phoenix Housing Market Letter.” That compares with 713 sales a year earlier.

It’s still difficult for some homebuilders to compete with the low prices that lenders are selling foreclosure homes for now. The gap in new-home and existing-home prices and sales is wider than it has been since the early 1990s.

• After posting month-to-month home-price increases during the last part of 2009, Phoenix is in the negative again on the latest S&P Case-Shiller home-price index.

The lagging index, released Tuesday, shows Phoenix home prices fell 0.06 percent from December to January. The decline comes after the metro area posted a 0.05 percent increase from November to December.

But Phoenix isn’t leading the nation in home-price declines. Case-Shiller reports the area’s home prices fell 4.6 percent during 2009. Las Vegas posted a 17.4 percent plummet in prices for the year. Tampa and Detroit each saw home prices drop more than 7 percent.