| The inventory of available Flagstaff homes for sale plunged over 10% from the first of September to the first of October. It’s not uncommon for listing counts to drop after Labor Day. In Flagstaff, with numbers of homes for sale already low, buyers in the lower price ranges are facing sellers’ market conditions just as they are trying to lock in record low interest rates by buying now. These numbers are for single-family homes. (I’ll take a look at the Flagstaff townhome and condo market tomorrow.)
Flagstaff home sales volume in September 2011 was down 4.4% from a year ago even as the median sales price fell 5.2% from August 2010. The median price of a single family home sold in Flagstaff in September was $281,500 – that’s down $3,500 from July’s median and down $15,500 from one year ago. A six-month supply of homes for sale is considered a balanced market, with neither buyers nor sellers being at an advantage because of an oversupply or shortage of inventory. As you can see in the chart, Flagstaff home buyers seeking to buy below $300,000 are at a disadvantage in bargaining power in the current Flagstaff housing market and it’s even closely balanced below $500,000. The upper-priced homes are still struggling. |
Distressed properties (foreclosed homes and short sale transactions) accounted for 34% of the Flagstaff single family homes sold in September. That’s up from August, but still lower than in many months earlier this year. Distressed units accounted for was over 47% of the 15 townhomes sold. I expect that the number of bank-owned homes listed and sold will be higher in coming months. Whether that shift in inventory will be enough to put further downward pressure on home prices remains to be seen.
To buy or sell a Flagstaff home, contact me: Ann Heitland at RE/MAX Peak Properties!
Note: The data reported here are based on home sales in the Flagstaff metro area (the City of Flagstaff and immediately surrounding county areas that have Flagstaff mailing addresses) as reported in the multiple-listing-service maintained by the Northern Arizona Association of Realtors.® The data may not reflect all sales (but it surely reflects most of them).
