Over the last couple weeks I’ve seen the same thing happen over and over: houses on the market are in bidding wars within HOURS of coming on the market and they are getting offers well above asking price.

There is a very simple reason this is happening: inventory in Maricopa County has dropped by more than half since January of last year.

This graph should make this very clear. This is terrible news if you are a buyer, but great news if you are listing a property.

This situation is going to last until one or two things happen: (1) Home builders start building more homes and/or (2) people who have been waiting to list their homes put them on the market.

Either way, prices are getting ready to move up. I feel bad for the people last year who told me things like, “it is clear that the market is going to drop again in 2012 because (insert economic theory here).” We agents knew prices were going to go up in 2012 because we’ve been watching this data for a very long time.

Here’s another way to look at it. The “Days Inventory” is going down quickly, too. Another way to see this is if we took the number of houses in the inventory today and divided it by the number of sales every day, how many days would it take until there were zero properties lest to sell. This tells you how quickly things are selling. If you want to break that down further by price, it really tells you a story.

See those charts below. For now, if you are thinking of buying a home be ready to be aggressive in your offers. Give me a call at 602-456-9388 and I can give you more information. Interest rates are still at a historic low. You definitely don’t want to wait until BOTH interest rates AND prices are higher!

Source: The Cromford Report (www.cromfordreport.com)

Active Listings in 2011 and 2012