By Catherine Reagor | Arizona Republic
Metro Phoenix home prices are expected to climb next month after sliding since late summer.
Already, most cities in the Valley have shifted back toward seller’s markets.
The median home price in the Phoenix area is projected to climb to $415,000 in February based on pending sales, according to the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service. That’s up from $410,000 in January.
An uptick in home prices was expected because big events, including the Super Bowl and Phoenix Open, drew visitors and potential homebuyers to the area in February.
But interest rates are ticking back up. Higher mortgage costs have hit some potential homebuyers hard since they started climbing in May.
A repeat of the last crash isn’t expected, and Arizona-based housing analysts are critical of a report from a Wall Street firm saying that’s going to happen in metro Phoenix.
“If mortgage rates were to spike upwards beyond 7%, I would expect further price declines,” said Tom Ruff with The Information Market, a division of ARMLS. “But nothing even remotely close to 2008.”
