Flagstaff Real Estate Market Report

As of Monday, March 3, 2008, there were 777 Flagstaff residences for sale. Sixty-five homes sold during the month of February. Today, there are 818 Flagstaff homes for sale and twenty have sold so far this month. I’m taking a “wait and see” attitude before making predictions for Spring, especially in light of the credit market news today which is likely to have reverberations throughout the economy. For now, I think the market we’ve seen is the market we’ll have without any Spring upturn in prices. Still, sales are steady.

The number of homes on the market compared to sales varies greatly by price range, with the homes available in the lower price ranges still few and far between unless you are interested in an apartment-converted condo. The average price of a sold home in February 2008 was over $350,000, according to the Northern Arizona Association of Realtors' MLS data, while the median price was $326,000 for all Flagstaff homes sold in February. (This includes any home with a Flagstaff mailing address, whether in the city limits or not, and also includes, condos, townhomes, and manufactured homes, as well as single-family residences.)

The numbers below are for single-family-homes with Flagstaff mailing addresses, whether inside the city limits of Flagstaff or in the immediately surrounding unincorporated areas of Coconino County – in other words what is generally thought of as the Flagstaff metropolitan area. As you can see, the median price is actually up from February 2007 to February 2008, but fewer homes sold, by 20%. This is what economists call "price stickiness." The question is, how long will sellers hold out -- long enough for the buyers to come back?