My colleague, Leif Swanson, publishes market stats for the Phoenix metro area once per month. Have a look here to see them thar updates.

Here is the Cliff’s Notes Version:

1) It is now a seller’s market in Phoenix! The inventory of homes in July 2009 was 4.2 months.  It was much better than July 2008’s absorption rate of 9.1 months, but a small bit higher than June 2009’s 4.1 months.  (Absorption rate = the # of months’ inventory available for sale.) A balanced buyer-seller market is six months.  The absorption rate in July 2009: 3.8 months for homes, 6.7 months for condos, and almost 14 months for manufactured homes.  Therefore, it is now a seller’s market for homes in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

2) Sales of homes in July did not go up from June. However, both months saw a 52% increase of home sales (about 9,000 homes) over last year (about 5,900 homes).

3)  Bank-owned foreclosure properties accounted for 53.3% of the sales in July 2009 down from June 2009’s 57.4% and May 2009’s 63.1%.  More and more buyers are purchasing homes from regular sellers.  While nearly 36% of the total sales in July 2009 were cash, 33% of the sales were with FHA or VA financing.

4) The average sales price in July 2009 increased for the FOURTH CONSECUTIVE MONTH to $175,345.

There is plenty more to geek out on in Leif’s report. He always does a thorough job in his report.