Phoenix Real Estate sales were up 14% in February 2010.
February only had 28 days, but that was enough time to beat January's total home sales in Metro Phoenix. Real estate residential sales increased from 5,812 in January to 6,613 home sales in February 2010. Need we ask why? The answer continues to be last minute shopping for the tax credit fueled by low interest rates. Expect more of the same during the next few months.
Read the chart in this manner: 6,613 homes sold in February in Metro Phoenix . Real estate defined as "normal" sales (not bank owned property or short sales) accounted for 2,463 sales, or 37.2% of the total. 4,150 sales were foreclosure related which comprised 62.8% of the total.
Here's another interesting statistic. Year over year sales, commonly known as YOY (a common industry comparison standard), have been up for 21 consecutive months (not completely shown by the chart ). YOY essentially compares the sales in February 2010 to the sales in February 2009, the sales in January 2010 to the sales in January 2009, and so on. In other words, Phoenix real estate sales have consistently been improved from the previous year.
It's also interesting to note that foreclosures (bank owned or REO property and shorts sales) officially accounted for over 1/2 all sales in the Phoenix real estate market beginning in October 2008. They have surged as high as 75.9% but have yet to drop below the 50% mark. My chart goes back to June 2007 for anyone who wants a longer term perspective.
My next post will evaluate the number of foreclosure sales and their makeup in terms of how many were lender owned properties and how many were short sales.
