More areas of the Valley shifting to a “buyer’s market” for homes

PHOENIX — The Valley housing market continues to cool down and the impact is being felt in some areas more than others.

Just a couple of months ago in May housing markets across the state were red hot. Inventories were down and prices were up double digits annually.

Rising interest rates combined with these massive price increases have put the breaks on the real estate market in some areas.

The Cromford Index is an industry tool used by many Phoenix-based realtors. It measures whether cities are considered a buyer’s market, seller’s market, or is in balance.

Based on the most recent data, cities on the outskirts of the Phoenix metro, like Buckeye, Queen Creek, and the town of Maricopa, have moved deep into buyer’s market territory.

The East Valley suburbs of Gilbert, Tempe, and Chandler continue to shift in the same direction.

On the opposite end of the spectrum though are Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and Fountain Hills, areas directly east of Phoenix that include some of the highest-income zip codes in the state.

In these areas, the home seller still has the advantage.

Phoenix itself and large inner suburban cities like Glendale, Mesa, and Peoria, are near the middle of the index and would be identified as areas with a balanced market between buyers and sellers.

One way to measure this is the number of active listings.

In the entire Phoenix metro area, the number of homes on the market in July was just under 15,000, a monthly high not seen since 2019.

This means buyers in the Valley can be pickier since there are more options to choose from in most price ranges.

Four major real estate markets around the state are seeing a decrease in the median listing price.

Flagstaff, Phoenix, Show Low, and Tucson are all seeing monthly price decreases in listings in a range from 3% to almost 4.5%.

Not all markets fell between June and July. Sierra Vista, a community south of Tucson, is seeing monthly increases in the median listing price of 2.5%.

Safford is up almost 2%. Yuma’s real estate market remained essentially unchanged.

One analyst at a major real estate company in the Valley characterized the market in one word: uncertainty.

The economic landscape of interest rates, inflation concerns, and even something as far away as the war in Ukraine are impacting people’s decisions to buy or sell a house.

Right now, it does appear that the housing cooldown in Phoenix, and much of the state, will only continue.