One thing that drives me crazy to no end is when our local paper opts to run AP stories about the national real estate market when the story that really needs to be told is the one about the local market. My favorite recent story, and the one that prompted this tirade can be found on my website here, and talks about the good news bad news real estate market. The good news is that sales volume is up – indeed – and the bad news is that inventory is up – that depends on where you look. How many times have we said that real estate is local? My guess is that this will continue.
Nationally, there may be, as the article explains, an 11.2 month supply of homes, but what does that mean for the guy buying a home in the Phoenix real estate market? He’s not buying a home in Detroit! In Phoenix, the inventory is a good 2 months below the national average, and over the last year we’ve shaved about 4 1/2 months off of our inventory. Statistically, we are approaching a ‘normal’ market – sure, foreclosures and shortsales are up, and prices are down, but people are buying those homes because they know it is an opportunity they will never have again.
It is grossly irresponsible for the Arizona Republic to carry a story that only tells part of the story. The responsible thing would be to append this story with local data and give it some context, but my guess is that this will continue as well.
Filed under: For Buyers, For Sellers, Real Estate Opinions | Tagged: arizona premiere living, buying a home, inventory, market statistics, phoenix real estate, prices, real estate blog, selling
