According to today’s Flagstaff paper (taking its calculations from the Northern Arizona Multiple-Listing-Service), home prices within the city limits of Flagstaff held up much better from June 2008 to June 2009 than in the overall metro Flagstaff area. The median price of a home within the city limits of Flagstaff was down 4% from the prior year compared with 15% down according to my calculations for single-family-homes with Flagstaff mailing addresses (thus, including areas such as Fort Valley, Kachina Village and the Northeast Rural areas such as Doney Park).
Volume of sales within the city of Flagstaff was as encouraging as the overall metro area, according to the newspaper.
Click here the Arizona Daily Sun story.
Click here for my June 2009 update on Flagstaff home sales.
My opinion is that the Realtors® quoted in the newspaper article are a bit too upbeat, and I say that as someone who sold more homes in June than they did. The notion that hot temperatures in Phoenix, where 66% of the sales are foreclosed homes, are going to have a big impact on the Flagstaff real estate market this year seems kind of off. On the other hand, if our supply of homes for sale here in Flagstaff continues to tighten, prices may have hit bottom even though they are not about to skyrocket. Foreclosures are definitely not flooding our Flagstaff market, so far, and many Flagstaff homeowners seem able and willing to hold off a couple more years until the market prices are likely to improve.
Meanwhile, if you are thinking of buying a Flagstaff home, probabilities are on the side of saying "now is the best time." Prices are low, but slowing their fall. Interest rates are low and posed to rise on inflationary fears in the financial markets. And there is still that tax credit available to first-time-home buyers through November 30 of this year. Life is a balance of risk and reward. Time to tilt that balance toward buying a home -- it's a long-term reward you will enjoy for years to come. | 
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