News updates are sent daily. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Existing home sales stay cool
Digg|
Save|
License|
Print|
E-mail|
Sales of existing Valley homes continued to drag in August as tightened lending standards made it tougher for some potential buyers to qualify for financing.
GRAPHIC: View East Valley existing home sales
Some 4,240 existing home sales were recorded last month, compared with 4,330 in July and 5,685 in August 2006, a report by Arizona State University’s Realty Studies Department shows.
Year-to-date through August, 37,750 existing homes were sold, well below the 47,515 sold during the same period last year and the 78,935 sales in 2005.
Also in August, the Valley’s median home price was $255,000, compared with $265,000 in July and last year’s $262,500.
“Everything’s sort of a trade off at the moment,” Realty Studies head Jay Butler said.
Interest rates are low, but lending guidelines also are stricter and the housing market could be affected by outside forces, such as rising gas prices, Butler said.
“They’re increasingly talking about a recession that could result in layoffs of jobs and other things that could result in more foreclosures,” he said.
While the Valley’s market has slowed, current sales are close to prehousing boom numbers, East Valley real estate agent Jay Thompson said. There’s no question the home sales inventory is huge and the market is starved for buyers, but interest also seems to be picking up, Thompson said.
Please add your comments, but follow these guidelines to keep this a safe, credible place for discussing the news: