While home prices continue to drop across the nation, only two states are seeing a larger increase in home sales than Arizona, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Ninety percent of the nation’s metropolitan areas reported lower median home prices in the first quarter of 2009, compared with the first quarter of 2008.The national median for an existing single-family home was $169,000, nearly 14 percent below the first quarter of 2008. The Phoenix-area median home price in first-quarter 2009 was $129,200. A year ago it was $222,200, a drop of nearly 42 percent.
As prices slip, states hit hardest by the housing slump are beginning a recovery. The largest sales gains from a year ago were in Nevada, up 117 percent, California, up 81 percent, and Arizona, 50 percent.
Many buyers sought deeply discounted distressed homes – foreclosures and short sales – which accounted for nearly half of transactions in the first quarter and weighed down median prices in most markets, according to the NAR.
Sales of existing single-family homes and condos fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.59 million units in the first quarter, down 3.2 percent from 4.74 million units in the fourth quarter, and 6.8 percent from the 4.93 million pace in first-quarter 2008.
Story curtsy of the Business Journal.