While it is hard to believe that we are more than a month into 2019, we can now get our first glimpse of what the year may bring. As a standalone month, January looked rough. Really rough. Like somehow we got 6 inches of snow and the entire city just shut down. But, this seems to be an enigma left over from Q4 2018 as February and March sales are already quickly improving.
Condo sales have been incredibly strong over the last few years. In January, only 4 sold. We saw just 4 townhomes change hands and 3 patio homes claim new owners. However, 17 single family homes sold. Together, these continue the trend from September of approximately 30 homes sold a month. These numbers are also very similar to those from Sept 2015 through January 2016 (other years sales have been substantially higher).
But, there has already been a huge shift just these couple weeks into February. On February 1st, 43 McCormick Ranch homes were under contract (this should give us around 40 sold homes in February). As of today, February 12, there are 58 homes under contract. This is a lot of activity in a short period of time!
So what happened?
Well, most importantly, the sky has NOT fallen. The stock market recovered from the lows giving buyers more confidence in the market. Also, interest rates have dropped once again. The government shut down ended (although we will see if this remains to stay in effect). And, the holidays are over (December contracts generally create January sales)! In short, a lot of the uncertainty putting buyers on the edge went away.
And, the seasonality seems to have hit our market a little harder this year that previous years.
All that being said, even with the low number of sales, prices have held steady over the past few months. Price per square foot is healthy and increasing all around. Single family and condo prices have gone up substantially while townhome and patio homes have remained flat (although these get hit hardest with the seasonality of our market).
All in all, I'm expecting a very strong February, March, and April.
Thank you for reading and as always, please subscribe to receive these updates directly to your inbox.
-Randy
Scottsdale calls itself the "West's Most Western Town". Old Town is riddled with art and relics depicting cowboys and the Wild West. The Western theme is riddled throughout the city, even on the city logo.
This week is a great week to relive some of those days. The Hashknife Pony Express will begin it's journey in Winslow on February 1st. Their job is to deliver mail to Scottsdale by Friday, February 8th. Multiple riders make stops along the way in Heber/Overgaard, Holbrook, Payson, and other towns before ending in Old Town Scottsdale.
The event concludes on Saturday, February 9th with the 66th annual Parada del Sol parade where the Pony Express riders will ride in the parade.
Get all of the details at their website.
Please join me on Friday, February 1st and Saturday, February 2nd for an open house at 7729 N Via de Calma. I will be there from 2-5 pm on Friday and 10 am - 2 pm on Saturday.
This is a beautifully remodeled 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom patio home in the Santa Fe subdivision of McCormick Ranch.
This home is priced at $465,000.
It is conveniently located close to the Greenbelt and close to the new Grove complex.
For additional details, please visit 7729 N Via de Calma.
I look forward to seeing you there!
