The April 2008 Prescott area housing reports are out. (See graphs below.) While the reports do confirm that home sales in the Prescott tri-city area are up slightly, I must admit I am disappointed that the upward trend in sales is almost negligible.
It is difficult to pick out the bright spots in the current housing report, but there is a glimmer of light. While Prescott home sales remain flate, notice that sales in Prescott Valley and Chino Valley have picked up fairly significantly. This would appear to be directly related to a drop in prices. The median home price dropped substantially in Chino Valley and sales picked up quite dramatically. Prescott Valley saw their median home price drop in March, and that seemed to spark sales there. In April the median home price in Prescott Valley rose, so it will be interesting to see if sales are sustainable despite the rise in the median home price. Prescott home sales remain very slow compared to April 2007. I am looking for some possibly significant price reductions in Prescott by October 2008 as more sellers decide to “price to sell” after waiting six months or longer with no offers.
I don’t wish to highlight the negative, but one cannot ignore the increase in inventory. Many Prescott area home sellers listed or relisted their homes in March and April, thinking that Spring is the optimum time to sell a home. Unless buyer activity picks up enough to maintain or reduce the current level of housing inventory in the Prescott area, then I don’t think we’ll “hit the bottom” until late 2008 or sometime in 2009.
There is much confusion about the national housing market right now, and we are seeing conflicting reports, with some “experts” giving some indications that we might be nearing the end of the housing bubble while others are calling the Arizona housing market a “depression”. Look for my next blog about these recent articles.
And, now, here are the latest housing statistics for the Prescott area real estate market:



