This summary looks at single family homes over $500,000 in all areas of the Northeast Valley, including Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills, Rio Verde, Arcadia, Biltmore, Cave Creek and Carefree.
SUPPLY
The supply of active listings offered for sale as of May 1 is 2,222 down 2% from last month and comprising 2,122 normal (down 2%), 83 short sales (down 8%) and 17 lender-owned (up 31%). Last year on the same date we had 2,017, with 1,803 normal, 179 short sales and 35 lender-owned. So supply is 10% higher than last year, with more sellers encouraged by the improvement in the market. Homes in distress have declined significantly over the last year with short sales down by 54% and lender-owned homes down by 51%. 2,222 luxury home listings remains a sufficient supply to satisfy the present number of buyers and the market remains fairly balanced, without the chronic shortages of supply which have been affecting prices at the low end of the market. For homes priced over $2,000,000 there are 454 active listings, down 8 from last month but 3% higher than the 439 we measured last year. This higher priced sector has more plentiful supply than the lower priced ranges. However this year there are only 2 lender-owned home and 5 short sales over $2,000,000, down from 5 and 13 on May 1, 2012.
DEMAND – SALES
There were 354 sales closed though ARMLS in April, up 16% from the 305 reported in March, and up a strong 31% from the 271 we saw in April 2012. Since last December sales numbers have been getting increasingly impressive and this was the strongest April for sales over $500,000 that we have seen since 2007, when there were also 354 sales. There were 7 sales over $3,000,000 compared with 8 in April 2012, and 18 sales between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000, up from 10 in April 2012. The range from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000 declined from 16 to 11 sales, but all the lower price ranges saw substantial increases over last year. 92% of sales were normal in April 2013 compared with 82% last year.
