THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | JANUARY 23, 2022
25 REAL ESTATE
From Uptown to Downtown, we cover Chandler like the sun
Housing market situation ‘desperate’ for buyers BY PAUL MARYNIAK Arizonan Executive Editor
T
he word du jour for the Valley’s housing market is “desperate,” according to a leading analyst of the Phoenix Metro region. “This market desperately needs more homes to buy,” the Cromford Report said last week, adding that “without a significant increase in the number of homes for sale, any hope of halting the brisk rate of price increases is likely to be crushed.” And brisk it is, according to the Cromford Report’s rating of home prices in the Valley’s 17 major cities that is based on a variety of factors to create an index in which the higher the number above 100, the more the market is tilted in sellers’ favor. Only Buckeye moved toward 100 – and thus more favorable to sellers – and its index number was 237, higher only than that of Maricopa. In 11 of those 17 cities, Cromford’s market index was above 400 with Fountain Hills leading the way at 723. Phoenix was at 426. Even more startling, according to the Cromford Market Index, seven cities saw their market position increase by more than 20 percent in a month. Those cities included Tempe, Goodyear, Surprise, Phoenix, Gilbert, Avondale and Scottsdale. Stating “the momentum in favor of sellers is growing,” the report noted “some increase in the number of homes available to rent.” But those are houses that big investors took off the market and converted into rental. Additionally, it said, many brand-new homes are being purchased to either convert into a rental or to immediately flip for a profit.” Simply put, it added, “demand is not the controlling factor.” “The market is showing almost no sign
This home on E. Oakwood Hills Drive, Chandler, recently sold for $3.95 million. The eight-bedroom, nine-bath home, built in 2000, has 9,748 square feet and a stunning array of amenities that include a 1,1000-bottle wine cellar with an adjacent dining room, a 12-hoot walk-in refrigerator, theater room, mother-in-law quarters, game and a sitting room with a 250-gallon salt water fish tank overlooking a lake. (Special to the Arizonan) of turning in favor of buyers,” the report said. “The bad supply situation is getting worse. Or at least worse from a buyer’s perspective.” “In January we should be seeing a lot of new listings piling up ready for the surge of buyers arriving after the Super Bowl is done,” it continued. “But we are not getting more supply, it is already going lower than at the start of the year. “This is quite a shock, but not exactly unprecedented. It happened in January 2021, but that was a precursor to a spring of absolute madness and frenzy. This is telling us that the bull market in housing has a lot of legs in it yet.” The Cromford Report only a year ago expressed concern about housing inventory and cited several examples of how the situation has worsened: Paradise Valley plummeted to “an all-time low of
just 93 single-family homes for sale,” almost half the number available in January 2021. “Scottsdale is down to 344 singlefamily homes for sale. There were 569 this time last year,” it continued. “Mesa is down to 314 single-family homes for sale There were 483 as recently as Oct. 3. Phoenix is down to 777 single-family homes for sale. There were 1,095 just one month ago.” It’s not a matter of huge demand, either, although the Cromford Report said it was high. “What is unusual about the current housing market is the chronic and extreme shortage of supply,” it said. “When buying a house, it feels like ‘high demand’ because there are far too many buyers for every house. The fact is this is due to there being so few houses avail-
able to buy. The number of buyers is only somewhat above average.” There are some bright spots – in Pinal County, it noted, adding, that there, “supply is still very low, but not as low as in Maricopa County.” Prices also are reflecting the tightening supply, according to the Cromford Report, which noted that the average sales price per foot in December was $267.31 – a 26.4% increase over the $211.44 per square foot in December 2020. The median sales price of a house in the Valley was $425,000 in December – a 28% increase of the December 2020 median price of $332,000. “The downward trend in supply that started in late October accelerated throughout December, taking us to the lowest number of active listings at year end that we have ever recorded,” it added.
