In July, spurred by the continuing drop in prices, Flagstaff homes sold at a pace equal to the peak of the market two years ago. The closings included seventy-three Flagstaff single-family homes closed and closings on 120 Flagstaff homes of all types (SFR, condos, townhomes, and manufactured). For July 2009 sales, the median price of a Flagstaff home of any type was $263,500 and $330,000 for single-family homes.
For single-family homes, the median price was down 8.8% from a year ago, and 15.9% from July 2006. Interestingly, the median price of a Flagstaff home in July 2005 was almost identical to this July – in fact it was $50 lower in 2005. The median tells us that half the homes sold were priced above $330,000 and half below. The median is also down slightly from June, when significantly more homes sold than in July. The year-to-year drop in June was 13% -- significantly higher than in July.
There were 83 homes under contract to sell as of August 8. Surely that means another hundred or more will close in August. Closings continue to take more time and work as homes that are selling include bank-owned properties and short sales, and as buyers’ lenders remain cautious and sometimes order second appraisals or other reviews of the subject property.
What is also interesting to me is that the average price of homes, while down from July 2008, has risen steadily since April of this year. In July the average price of a single-family home was $394,374. Buyers are gaining confidence about moving into the higher priced homes – a confidence that was not there this spring when volume overall was lower and mostly represented homes in the $300,000-and-lower price range.
Most significantly, inventory levels have dropped from 20-months’ supply of Flagstaff single-family-homes in April to under 11-months’ supply in June and July.
The picture for Flagstaff townhomes is even better, with a jump from only three sales in April to 23 townhome sales in July, the supply of townhomes is down to under five months’ worth – technically, a “seller’s market.” The median sales price for a townhome was down to $236,900 in July compared to over $300,000 at the peak of the market.
The data “slice” that I use is for all homes with Flagstaff mailing addresses, so it includes homes inside the city limits and outside the city limits in places like Doney Park, Timberline, Kachina Village and Fort Valley, but does not include other parts of the Northern Arizona MLS such as Bellemont, Williams, Parks or Munds Park, or Winslow. A recent article in the Arizona Daily Sun which reported twenty-months’ supply of homes on the market and over 180 sales in July seems to have included non-Flagstaff homes. My calculations for Flagstaff homes, as stated above, show a significantly lower inventory level than suggested by the newspaper.
I continue to believe that we should not anticipate an up-swing in prices until 2011. The market is currently leveling out, and Flagstaff home prices have held better than in most parts of the country. Still, there is a “shadow inventory” of homes that are not listed – either owned by people who would sell if the market were better or owned by banks that have simply not processed the homes through their over-loaded foreclosure systems. This will continue to put pressure on prices, especially on more expensive Flagstaff homes.
Homes suitable in price and condition for first-time-homebuyers, however, are becoming few and far between in Flagstaff. Homebuyers wanting to take advantage of the first-time-homebuyer tax credit should act now. Those home purchases must be completed by the end of November.
Note: All numbers in this article were generated using the Northern Arizona Multiple-Listing-Service, which is the property of the Northern Arizona Association of Realtors®. The facts stated are for homes with Flagstaff mailing addresses and active listings and reported sales are as of the date the statistics were generated, August 8, 2009, by the author Ann Heitland at RE/MAX Peak Properties. The MLS data does not represent the entire Flagstaff real estate market, but it does represent the vast majority of it.
To buy or sell any Flagstaff home, contact us: Team Heitland at RE/MAX Peak Properties.
To search the Flagstaff MLS, click here!
Click here to see our featured Flagstaff home and land listings. | 
-->
Email to a Friend
