January 2018 Sales Update

2017 is a wrap! It was a great year for home sales throughout almost all of the Phoenix Metropolitan area, including McCormick Ranch. Prices increased, homes sold faster, and the pure number of sales went up.

Let's start with single family. The average sales price jumped 5.2% up to $597,104. In December 2017, there were 17 single family home sales which matched December 2016. The average price per square foot went up 6.1%. For the full year, 193 single family homes sold compared to 186 in 2016.

Townhomes saw a huge bump over the fourth quarter. This was primarily buoyed by a few sales in Las Palomas. For example, a $1.06M townhome closed in December. Gotta love life on the lake! The 6 month rolling average shows a price increase of 15% for townhomes (383k vs 333k in 2016)! However, this is skewed from the couple of sales. Price per square foot was up a more modest 9.64% (also due to the large townhomes that sold).

After a very weak start to the year, patio homes also jumped over the last few months. They ended up 8.3% year over year. Days on market dropped from 152 to 82. That shows a lot more demand and interest and is a very good sign moving forward, especially as we move into the high season.

Lastly, condos rose a whopping 9.2% throughout the year. Days on market dropped from 89 to just 61. So if you are looking to sell a condo, expect it to move quickly. If you are looking to buy, be prepared for competition from other buyers! Price per square foot was up 10.3%.

Looking forward, I'm expecting 2018 to be very similar to 2017. We should still see healthy gains but perhaps on a slightly smaller scale. At the start of the year, there is still a very large lacking of inventory with just 1.75 months to sell (93 active listings and 53 sales in December). There is still a lot of demand for housing here.

Interest rates remain very low which allows borrowing power to go further. Scottsdale's population is increasing by just under 3% a year which always creates more demand. And, the economy as a whole seems to be chugging along quite nicely right now.

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Happy New Year!

Yours in real estate,

Randy