It’s no secret that the Phoenix real estate market (and countless other local markets) have experienced a slowdown this year. I’m not even going to attempt to link to a story, you’ve all seen plenty of them.
And it’s also no secret that this time of the year is historically one of the slowest times for real estate sales. It’s a seasonal thing. People just aren’t looking for homes this time of year.
Or are they? When I did the ActiveRain “commentathon” a couple of weeks ago, I read numerous AR blogs that mentioned lower inventories, shorter days on market and new found buyers.
Maureen out in Michigan reports that she’s seeing buyers returning to their market.
And we’ve also noted a lot of anecdotal evidence of a shift, turn, adjustment, change–whatever term you’d like to use–in the Phoenix market. Some of what we’ve noted in just the past couple of weeks:
- Contacts from our website have increased significantly. And many are “hot” — meaning they indicate a strong and serious interest in buying within the next 0 – 60 days. (Longer term prospects are also coming forth).
- The phones have been lighting up like…. well, like a Christmas tree. Francy and I have both received numerous calls from prospects over the last two weeks, including on the days before and after Christmas and today, New Year’s Eve. Normally phones are slow on days like this.
- Sign calls on existing listings for both land and residential properties are up.
- Website traffic, blog traffic, and listings feed requests are up significantly.
- We’ve set more people up on a listings gateway this week, historically a very slow week, than in the last three weeks combined.
- Buyer contact is from the full spectrum–young first time buyers to seasoned investors. Upsizers, downsizers, relocations in, relocations out. It’s not just one demographic. Some of the agents in our office have also noticed an uptick in business. And our fabulous office administrator confirms that the office desk phone traffic has picked up, with many more ad calls than we’ve had recently.
We find this anecdotal evidence encouraging. I’m sure the bubbleheads will have a different take (which I’d love to hear–no really.). The fact that other agents across the country are noting the same thing is interesting. While real estate is decidedly local, there are general regional and national trends. Generally speaking, more buyer activity in other markets is a positive indicator of our market.
I’m not saying that the Phoenix market HAS shifted, and there’s certainly not enough hard data to support a market shift (yet). We’ll keep a close eye on it (of course) and report back with more later.
Wishing a happy and prosperous new year to all!
[tags]Phoenix real estate market[/tags]
I'm Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... Welcome to The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, or "TPREG" as I fondly refer to it.
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