We found out in part 2 that While Prices Are Rising in Central Phoenix in 2012, they’ve risen most dramatically under $150,000. The high end properties of $800,000 and upwards have increased in price, but not nearly as dramatically. (Before I jump-in, I want to again recognize Mike Orr and Tina Tamboer for allowing me to share their work from the Cromford Report which is mixed in with my take that follows.)

The monthly average price per square foot in greater Phoenix in this chart to the left is very broad. Obviously, not every home is going to be at $100 per square foot, especially in central Phoenix.

Jump your eyes down to this little blue square in the center of the next chart, which will come up later.

 I’m going to be putting everything into the historical context of that square, which is Non-Distressed homes between 2005 and mid-2009 for Single Family Residences in Maricopa County.

In this next chart, below, which shows the price per square foot from 2001 to Aug 2012, try to ignore the $190 Close Encounters peak  and take a look at the far left line. That’s the 2001 price lines. They were basically at about $100/sf at that time. Again, this is for the greater Phoenix average per square foot.

Based on that, here’s my rule of thumb: “Did you buy your home around 2001 or 2002 or before that?” You’re probably going to be okay to sell now, because you’ve survived the worst of it. If you’re thinking, “Gosh, I could really sell my home now”, or if you know someone who’s thinking that, make sure you both take a look at your specific area, before making the leap.

I know. What a relief.

Do we want to get back to over $190 per square foot, to that place where the UFO’s are landing on our mountain of Devil’s Peak? Heck no, not anytime soon. What this long-term context tells you is we do have a little bit of ways to go still. This is a great way to look at this to tell whether people are potentially underwater or those who are likely to be okay.

Next up: Median Sales Price.

We’re back to the little blue square I mentioned earlier: people who are potentially undewater from the 2005 to mid 2009 range.

When you take this median sales price, for single-family homes, all the way across the board, you can see it’s pretty obvious that during those years, for those people who are non-distressed (which is when we saw the big bubble and crash) these are the people who have not sold yet.

They’re potentially underwater, we don’t know for sure, but they’re not considered distressed or late on their payments.

So what’s going to happen with all of those? Are they suddenly going to find themselves in the market? Say, a year from now, when the prices get a little bit better for some of those people?

That’s going to be something that you’re going to want to watch.

I love this next particular chart. This tells you how much growth we have and how much potential you have if you happen to be an investor.

The long-term timeline with just general growth, year over year, (taking into account population, prices) is going to keep up at a regular pace.

This is a kind of equilibrium with a pretty good number of houses for sale that people will want to buy. This long distance in this chart is great because however long it takes us to reach that point, there’s still the potential for you to either buy something as an investment, and get some return on that investment, or buy a home and know that you didn’t buy it above what it should be worth.

Next, let’s look at greater Phoenix wide and then we’ll drill down closer into some specific zip codes. This is encouraging stuff. Okay, so look at this section listed as under $200,000.

Look at the price and notice that price per square foot has gone up 33% since August 2011. That’s citywide.

Now hop down to the next chart and look at the similar thing for greater Phoenix, between $200,000 and $500,000.

Drill down between $200,000 and $300,000, for just these zip codes, look at this huge 14% growth!

This speaks to a premise  that I’ve been pushing for a very long time: in central Phoenix, especially around the light rail and historic neighborhoods, prices dropped the least and will come back the fastest.

This is something to keep in mind as density continues.

And $500,000 and $800,000, in the same areas in the same zip code?

Look at this 18% growth!

That’s from the lowest point to where we are right now, that’s a good place to stay.

$800,000-$1 million? See below: The growth is 5%. Again, that’s in the Camelback corridor area.

“Under Contract” homes is what this next chart is all about. We’ll end today’s brief on this. It offers a lot of insight.

If a house is under contract, you don’t know the price at which the house is under contract for. It’s private information. Let’s say you go to the multiple listing service and look at the sales price of the house and its $200,000. The next day, it says it’s “pending”. It still says $200,000 but that property could have a contract for $215,000 or $190,000. You just don’t know.

But MLS does because agents must report it

It’s in the system. They can’t tell you what it is. But they can report an aggregate.

So when you hear “Under contract. Legally average list price per square foot.” That means that on this date, 10/1/12, everything under contract was under contract for an average of $93.88 per square foot.

Those hosues aren’t going to close for 30 days, though. So, when you look at this chart and see that right now it’s $93.88 per square foot, that’s the amount that is going to be realized, most likely, in the market 30 or 40 days from now.

If you’re following this chart and you suddenly see this line turn a different direction, you have a very good indication that 30 days from now, that may be what the market is going to start to look like.

That’s as much of a crystal ball, as I think you are ever going to see.

The thing that’s impacting all of these numbers, especially in places like the Camelback corridor, and those other zip codes, is new-home sales recorded, as in “What are the homebuilders doing?”

Great Question. In part 4 of our Get Your Phx Market Briefing, we’ll find out that very thing…