Please visit our web site at www.pacellagroup.com for additional information, or to view properties for sale.

This is an amazing time to purchase vacation homes, income producing investment properties, or move up in the Phoenix market, but it won't last forever.  At our current rate of absorption, the Phoenix Metro area has a 9 month supply of inventory.  A balanced market would be approximately 6 months supply.  Last year at this time, we had a 16.6 months supply.  Analysts are forecasting that the balance will come in 2009.

Once again, listing inventory has shrunk this week.  We have seen the shrinking consistently from one week to the next for the past few months, so we will call it a trend.

You've probably heard about the terrific incentives for first time home buyers currently being offered by the government.  The term "first time home buyer," applies to anyone who has not owned a home in the past three years.  For specifics regarding the program, please visit our web site at www.pacellagroup.com, and click on "newsletter."

Reviewing Phoenix MLS data for the same period one year ago, pending sales are up 73% for this week, and closed escrows are up 60%.  This is partially due to the affordability index in Phoenix being 106%.  94% of the properties selling each month are priced under $400,000.

Current Conditions in the Phoenix Market:

Today there are 39,818 single family detached listings actively being marketed in MLS.  That is a decrease of 715 over the past week.  I honestly cannot recall the last time I saw a figure under 40,000 in our market, but it may have been 2006.

Total listings, including condos, patio homes and townhomes active in MLS today is 49,368. 

The overall absorption rate (the number of listings going pending, versus the number of active listings on the market) has held steady at 16% this week.