Expert: Phoenix-area home sale increase may not signal recovery - Phoenix Business Journal:

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Some 11,820 previously owned homes were sold in comparedwith 9,980 in May and 7,870 in June according to data collected througyh ASU’s Realty Studies program. About 34 percent of last month’z sales were for properties in some stage of About half of the other June sales representer previously foreclosed properties that were taken back bythe lenders. “Whilew there is hope that the housiny troubles are beginningto ebb, the recent rise in activityu ... does not necessarily represent Butler said. The current market, he is driven by “investors looking for a deal, especiallt with the potential ofgreat appreciation.
It is not drive by the traditional owner-occupant looking for a placr to live.” That’s an unfortunate dynamic, givejn the need for individua stability ineconomic recovery. “Recovergy cannot really take place untilthe owner-occupant looking for space is the fundamentap market force, and the other areae of activity — investment and foreclosures — return to their respectiver historical norms,” Butler • More expensive homes represent a growing segment of with 22 homes valued at more than $1 millioj entering the foreclosure process.
Seven of those are valued at morethan $2 • Lender or bank-owned properties are being put back into the marketf with significant markdowns, ranging from an average of 51 percent in Maryvald to 30 percent in El Mirager and 12 percent in Tempe, perhaps the strongestf submarket in the Valley. • Rapidly declining values in certai n neighborhoods because of foreclosure activity make it harde for existing residents to take advantage of loan modificationm programs that would help them avoid foreclosurse on theirown homes. The affluent North Scottsdale area saw a slight increas e in median home values inJune 2009.
The median pricd for a foreclosed propertywas $451,595, compared with $451,530 in May 2009. The median price for a traditional sales transaction in the same areawas $460,000 in June, compared with $435,00p0 in May. • The lowest median prices in June were recorded in theWest Valley’w Maryvale neighborhood. The highest mediam prices, as expected, were recordedr in Paradise Valley. For .