John Wake's  Instablog

Dr. Jay Butler of Realty Studies at Arizona State University (ASU) came out with his Phoenix area residential real estate sales and median price numbers for June 2009. Realty Studies is associated with the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus.

Greater Phoenix - Median Home Price

(Excludes repossessions but includes sales by banks after they repossess. ASU calls these “Traditional Sales”)

June 2009: $134,000
June 2008: $218,000

From April 2009 to June 2009 the median home price INCREASED $9,000. From May to June, the median home price increased in 10 of the 14 cities detailed by ASU. Some cities had significant increases. For example, the median home price from May to June increased over $20,000 in Chandler, Tempe and Glendale. WOW!

It could be the prices of more expensive homes have finally fallen enough to be attractive to buyers and the mix of homes sold is skewing more expensive.

Let’s see if those three cities can maintain those gains in July and August. It will be key to see what the MLS and Case-Shiller numbers show when they come out.

Greater Phoenix - Number of Homes Sold

(Excludes repossessions but includes sales by banks after they repossess. ASU calls these “Traditional Sales”)

June 2009: 7,760
June 2008: 4,565

The number of homes sold in the Phoenix area in June INCREASED 70% over June 2008.

More suprising to me, the number of homes sold in June was 12% higher than May. Typically, home sales start to fade in June except in very strong years like 2005. To have June sales go against the seasonal trend and actually increase significantly over May is an extremely bullish (non-bearish?) sign to me.

Disclosure: No positions