By Rod Lakin | KTAR
September is a very significant month for Phoenix’s real estate market.
Exactly two years ago, Phoenix home prices bottomed out to their lowest levels during the housing crash. Two years later, a swift real estate rebound has pushed home prices up 40 percent, creating a high demand-low inventory situation that has left many prospective buyers frustrated and, at times, hesitant to get back into the real estate market.
This trend has been particularly apparent in September, a month that is historically quiet for home sales, according to Michael Orr, director of real estate, at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
“I think we’ve got a little bit of a buyers’ strike going on,” Orr said on his weekly appearance on That Real Estate Show, Saturdays at 3 p.m., on News/Talk 92.3 KTAR.
“[Buyers are] fed up with not being taken seriously or given enough respect over the last few years. To them, prices seemed to have gone up very fast and interest rates, too,” he said. “They’re probably pretty fed up and want to sit on the fence for a bit.”
Statement by Jim Belfiore, president, Belfiore Real Estate Consulting: “New home sales were higher last month than they were one year ago, so the notion of striking buyers is a stretch.
“Some wanna-be buyers may be absorbing the initial shock of higher interest rates and higher prices — higher prices justifable with persistently low supply levels — but the market recovery will continue as the selling season approaches and more opportunities to purchase present themselves.”
