Arizona Real Estate
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“It's slowed down quite a bit,” said Holly Gray, a Phoenix-area Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.
While some are worried that a housing crash could be coming, other data indicates median Arizona home prices are still on the rise.
The median sales price in Arizona was $350,390 for all housing types in May 2023-down 3.2% from a year ago, according to the Arizona Association of Realtors.
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Actual list prices vary depending on the region of the state. As of May 2023, the National Association of Realtors noted the following median list prices and the year-over-year change in these Arizona counties:
Home sales fell about 12% and available listings on the market declined 5.5% in May 2023 from a year ago, according to Arizona Realtors. Still, there are still bright spots in the state's housing market.
In its Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2023 report, PwC listed Phoenix as among one of the year's top 10 real estate markets. The consulting firm notes that the state's economy is primed to attract a variety of large businesses.
That's something Gray—who specializes in corporate relocations—also sees. She notes that TSMC—Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.—is investing $40 billion in Arizona with the construction of a new chip manufacturing facility in metro Phoenix. The move will create thousands of jobs and bring new residents to the city.
In other statewide investments, over $500 million dollars has been accumulated from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for the construction of two land ports in Douglas and San Luis, making room for more people and goods. The construction effort is scheduled to finish in 2028.
Overall, job growth in Arizona has steadily increased since the beginning of the year. Between employment growth and a strong school system, Gray sees northeast Phoenix as a “hot spot” in the region.
Arizona's housing market reflects this growth. According to Zillow, the median days to pending—which indicates how long a home is for sale on the site—was only 24 days as of May 2023, indicating an increase in purchase frequency.
Some are pessimistic about the future of the Arizona housing market, especially in Phoenix.
At the end of 2022, the National Association of Realtors predicted a 15.8% drop in combined sales and prices for the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale market in 2023. Tucson was expected to fare only slightly better with a 10.2% decline.
Despite the decline in sales and available listings, home prices are on the rise. This price increase is common amongst states with lowing housing inventories. However, potential homebuyers in Arizona and elsewhere may be waiting for prices to come down and to see where mortgage rates, which have jumped considerably in the past year, go next.
Meanwhile, investment firm Goldman Sachs reportedly prepared a memo that said four U.S. housing markets were heading toward a crash that would rival that of 2008. Phoenix was on the list, and the company projected home prices could fall more than 25%.
Not everyone sees disaster in the future, though.
“Prices might go down,” Gray says, “[but] I don't think the market is going to fall apart.”