It's Beginning to Feel Alot like Last Spring

Well, Real Estate in Phoenix AZ never fails to be interesting!

In the Spring of last year, housing prices were rebounding after sinking to record lows. Yes, there were alot of foreclosures, but the banks were releasing them at a measured pace, and investors were snapping them up as soon as they appeared. In fact, in most cases, there were multiple bids on many foreclosures. As a result, with steady or declining inventory, and multiple bids for many homes, the housing indeces turned around. Prices were finally going up! And not just a little bit....prices rose by close to 10% (sometimes more) in most parts of the Valley.

THEN.....the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit expired. And with it, the housing market cooled. First time buying dried up, prices started to stagnate, and investors held back as prices weakened again. By August, the indicators had again turned negative. Prices were dropping. In fact, by December, we dropped even further than the original bottom. We officially had "Double dip" in our housing market.

BUT....it's beginning to feel alot like last spring again. We've had our busiest Dec-Jan in 5 years. According to our broker, most of the other agents are busier than ever as well. Foreclosures? Still plenty of em...but once again, they are getting multiple bids.

Buyers are returning, but this time it is not just first time buyers....people moving up into larger homes, and moving into Phoenix for jobs, are buying. Investors, sensing a bottom, are jumping in again.

If I don't miss my guess, the one thing we haven't seen that would mimic last Spring...a reasonable increase in home prices.....will start showing up in the statistics soon. And that will probably mark the beginning of an ongoing recovery, in our opinion.