You’ve been shopping for a  modest 4/2 with pool, and didn’t think you were being unreasonable to expect to find an attractive home with a good lay-out and nice upgrades in a well-kept community.  You missed out 3 times, and finally snagged a great house – but only after offering over list price.  What’s going on?

Or, your beautiful and highly upgraded semi-custom home, in a fairly prestigious community and with a terrific rear yard, had been getting decent traffic, but no offers.  You finally attracted a solid purchase offer – but only after a few months and one or two price reductions.  Yet everyone around you says the market is going gang busters.  What’s going on???

In 3 words: Supply and Demand.  Largely, what is going on, once again, is all about supply and demand.  Not a lot of houses in the lower price ranges, but still a decent amount of inventory past the mid-point and into the luxury segment.

This morning, there are approximately 13,833 active listings in Phoenix Metro’s MSL (Multiple Listing Service).  While that sounds like a huge number, please remember that we’re talking a wide swath of Arizona:  From Anthem to Casa Grande, and Apache Junction to Buckeye. Twice this number of active listings would be considered a metro area market more or less balanced between supply and demand.

 A little over half of these residences are priced under the $250,000 point, and with the number of buyers seeking/buying currently, this number is not much more than one month’s supply of inventory. 

Sellers and buyers have a different dynamic when dealing with the market for homes listed between $250k and $500k.  There are about 3653 listings in this segment, which is hovering at about 3 months of inventory. 

And for homes $500k and higher, there are approximately  3014 active listings – and over 7 months of supply.  For buyers shopping  within a budget somewhere within this pricing continuum, it can still seem slim pickings within the locale being shopped.  However, homes don’t often sell within days with multiple offers.  Pricing is softer in homes above the half million mark, and it can (not always!)  take one or more price reductions, and several months to attract a strong offer.