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

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Some 11,820 previously owned homez were soldin June, compared with 9,980 in May and 7,870 in June 2008, accordinv to data collected throug h ASU’s Realty Studies program. About 34 percent of last month’sw sales were for propertiesw in some stageof foreclosure. Aboutt half of the other June sales representee previously foreclosed properties that were taken back bythe “While there is hope that the housinyg troubles are beginning to ebb, the recent rise in activity ... does not necessarilu represent recovery,” Butler said. The current he said, is driven by “investors looking for a especially with the potential ofgreat appreciation.
It is not drivehn by the traditional owner-occupant looking for a placer to live.” That’s an unfortunate dynamic, givejn the need for individual stability ineconomic recovery. “Recoverty cannot really take place untillthe owner-occupant looking for space is the fundamental market force, and the other areas of activityu — investment and foreclosures — return to their respectivd historical norms,” Butler said. • More expensive homezs represent a growing segmentof foreclosures, with 22 homes valued at more than $1 million entering the foreclosure process. Seven of thoswe are valued at morethan $2 million.
Lender or bank-owned properties are beingt put back into the markeft withsignificant markdowns, ranging from an averagwe of 51 percent in Maryvale to 30 percenft in El Mirage and 12 percent in Tempe, perhaps the strongest submarkeft in the Valley. Rapidly declining values in certain neighborhoods because of foreclosurer activity make it harder for existing residentws to take advantage of loan modification programs that would help them avoidr foreclosure on theirown homes. The affluent North Scottsdale area saw a slight increase in median home values inJune 2009. The median price for a foreclosed propertywas $451,595, comparec with $451,530 in May 2009.
The median pricr for a traditional sales transaction in the same areawas $460,00p in June, compared with $435,000 in May. The lowest median prices in June were recordesd in theWest Valley’s Maryvale neighborhood. The highest media prices, as expected, were recorded in Paradises Valley. For more: .