Monthly Market Update: March ' 06 STATS

Hello,
As you must be aware, lately there has been a lot of talk about the "cooling of the housing market, bubble talk etc." While rising interest rates, increased inventory and time to sell a house is taking longer and certainly affecting the national housing market, we in metropolitan Phoenix are experiencing continuous growth, appreciation in housing as well as a continuous increase in building permits.
Our anticipated population growth and job market is still strong and our market is not bursting or bubbling but rather leveling off to "normal"
conditions. As a service to my clients and many individuals/friends etc. who have a vested interest in real estate and the Phoenix market I'm starting a new service of sending each of you a monthly market update.
Here's the one for March 2006 ... please call me if you have any questions.
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Compiled on April 16th:
# OF ACTIVE LISTINGS:
Feb 06 - 34,507 (residential only)
Mar 06 - 37,215 (residential only)
ACTIVE LISTINGS
March 05 - Average list price: $335,133
March 06 - Average list price: $400,212 ($413,639 last month)
PENDING LISTINGS
TOTAL # -- 9,826 (9,241 last month)
March 05 - Average list price: $276,003
March 06 - Average list price: $365,945 ($408,244 last month)
SOLD LISTINGS:
Total in last 30 days: 7,485 (7,064 last month; 9,959 in March 2005)
March 05 - Average SALES price: $269,206
March 06 - Average SALES price: $335,555 ($347,974 last month)
LIST TO SALES PRICE RATIO:
March 05 - Average: 98.88%
March 06- Average: 97.56% (98.08% last month)
DAYS ON MARKET
March 05 - Average: 49
March 06 - Average: 61 (60 days last month)
What does this mean? It means many things:
1. You can see a big gap in the average listing price between homes that were active and pending vs. those that sold.
2. Even though the market has slowed, the average sales price is still increasing (only January was higher with an average sales price of $348,682).
3. The average home that is priced according to the market will, on average, be on the market for 2 months.
4. The home that is priced according to the market will, on average, sell for 97.56% of the asking price.
5. We currently have 37,215 homes on the market, 9,826 pending, and there have been 7,485 sales in the past 30 days. This means that with the inventory we have right now, with no new homes entering the market, we have a supply of homes for the next 3.79 months AND that 76% of those homes under contract should close. If that follows, that means 24% of the homes under contract could either return to the market OR expire and leave the market.
6. For buyers this is a great time to enter the market and not feel rushed into making a quick decision.
7. Commercial market in Phoenix is exploding and vacancy factors have been at an all time low for office space/industrial/retail sectors.
Investors have also taken an increased interest in trying to pick up any available land (any type of zoning), multi units and condos.
I will continue to update these figures each month so that can see how these numbers are changing. Please let me know if this is helpful information
Thanks for your time!