Condo resales show slight uptick

The good news is that the number of homes sold in Maricopa County rose nearly 9 percent in June compared with May, according to an Arizona State University report.

The bad news is that more than four out of every 10 of those sales were foreclosures, a slight increase from the previous month.
According to the study released Thursday by the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness at ASU Polytechnic, 7,840 home sales were recorded in June. Of those, 3,275, or nearly 42 percent, were returned to lenders or sold to the highest bidders through foreclosure.

The total number of sales last month was higher than May's 7,210, but, so was the percentage of foreclosures. Foreclosed homes during May totaled 2,895, or about 40 percent.

In Sun City, home resales from June of last year to June 2008 dipped to 110 from 115, and the median price dropped as well - $184,500 to $165,000. In Sun City West, home resales were up, from 45 in June 2007 to 60 this June, but the median price declined from $217,500 to $195,000. Surprise showed a significant increase in single-family resales year over year: 280 to 505. But the median price received by sellers dropped severely over the period, from $229,000 to $175,000.

The Sun City condominium/townhouse resale market showed a slight uptick, 45 last June to 50 in June 2008. In Sun City West, the number rose from 10 to 20 year over year. Median prices in Sun City went from $128,000 to $115,000 and in Sun City West, $175,500 to $137,500.

June's foreclosure figures look even worse when compared with the same period last year, when only 575 of the 5,145 home sales, or 11 percent, were foreclosed properties.

"Things don't look real good," said Jay Butler, who heads ASU's Realty Studies Department.

Butler warned these trends will continue until the current economic downtown and rising prices for food and energy start to subside.
"Everybody's net income is just getting creamed," he said. "People are just getting nickeled and dimed."

The county's foreclosure rate first reached as much as 40 percent in January, experts said. That's likely the highest it's been since the early 1990s, Butler said.