NEWS RELEASE: RealEstateRama
The Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors® (SAAR) recently released its monthly May 2015 real estate market report for Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe Market Data Report, which highlights key metrics for residential real estate inventory.
The count of homes currently listed as active for sale continues to decline for the fourth month in a row. May saw a steep decline, with the active listing count dropping 18%. As is typical, this declining inventory is due to the homes currently listed for sale turning to “pending” or “sold”, without enough new homes being listed “active for sale” to replenish the inventory of what is being sold.
7,438 homes sold in May, with a total volume of $2.1 billion. This is the highest dollar volume of home sales in a single month in over two years.
SAAR’s forward-looking indicator, pending sales, which tracks the number of homes currently under contract that have not yet sold, has also increased for the fifth month in a row. There are currently 10,677 homes that are pending sale, more than the valley has seen at one time in over 24 months. Typically, homes are pending for 30 to 45 days before being sold. With sales counts typically in the range of 6000-to-9000 units per month, the large number of homes currently pending could lead us into the largest number of homes sold in a single month since 2012.
Only 8,349 new homes were listed for sale in May, the least amount of new listings in a single month since February of this year. Dwindling active for sale inventory and increased pending and sold inventory typically lead to higher prices, as more buyers compete for fewer available homes.
