Here is my market update for March. I hope you find this informative:
It’s the first of March, so today we will review the market sales and information for February. First, we came into March with 27,000 single family home available for sale. If you compare this to last year when 40,000 homes were on the market in the metro Phoenix area you would see inventor is down 32.5%.
Next are the home sales. We closed 5,504 homes in metro Phoenix this February, that is 14% higher than last year. Remember last year was the second best year ever for home sales. Last month 7,407 homes sold and went into a Pending status.
Foreclosure homes constituted 2,100 of the sales last month and inventor of foreclosures is flat. Short Sales continue to sell with great velocity, there were 1,359 Short Sale closings in February for the metro Phoenix real estate market. That is 4 times the amount of the same time last year.
Retail home sales continue to improve as more sellers bring their price to the market value and attract buyers. This segment made up 36% of the closings for February. Over 56% of the homes available for sale are retail sales.
Affordability has returned to the metro Phoenix real estate market. I put together the following chart to show how affordable homes are today. But a quick review of what I am trying to convey. For a home valued at $100,000 it takes one income earner of approximately $27k to qualify or 2 at $13.5k per year. With 2,000 work hours in a year 2 persons making $6.75 each per hour would qualify for a $100,000 home. For a $300,000 home it would take two people averaging $20 per hour to qualify. Of course, as interest rates go up, so will the required income. Today, you can buy a real nice home for $300,000. As a matter of fact, we are listing a really nice home in Surprise today. It is about 2,000 square feet, single level, 3 beds plus a den, Granite counters, Stainless appliances, NICE home, oh and it backs the neighborhood park. Guess how much? $125,000!!! YES, this is crazy! This is a fantastic deal, but their are great opportunities all over. You just need to make a wise informed decision.
Home Value Interest rate Payment PITI Income (household/per person dual income)
$100,000 4.75 $522 $672 $26,880 / $13,440
$100,000 5.75 $584 $734 $29,360 / $14,680
$100,000 6.5 $632 $782 $31,280 / $15,640
$200,000 4.75 $1,043 $1,293 $51,720 / $25,860
$200,000 5.75 $1,167 $1,417
$200,000 6.5 $1,264 $1,514
$300,000 4.75 $1,565 $1,915 $76,480 / $38,240
$300,000 5.75 $1,751 $2,101
$300,000 6.5 $1,896 $2,246
I hope you saw my video of the 3 dates and 3 reasons to buy today.
1. April the Fed stops buying mortgage backed securities, rates will go up. Experts are saying rates will go up 1 – 1.5%!
2. April, FHA raises their mortgage insurance premium .5%. This is a direct cost to the buyer.
3. End of April, you must be under contract by the end of April to qualify for the buyer tax credits.
watch the video:
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