Tucson Market Statistics: February 2008

The Tucson real estate market is still in a downtrend, as it has been for the past 2-1/2 years. It has gone from wildly overbought to — as I have been saying for the past 2 months — what seems to be oversold (or under priced). Now, it can be argued that outside influences have had a greater effect on the local real estate market than any other factor. This means that the very serious credit crunch has disturbed the market much more then anyone, even at this point, can predict. The unavailability of credit is seriously affecting everything in the economy, and Tucson real estate is no different. My guess is that if this credit crunch had not occurred on the scale we are currently seeing (wishful thinking), the local real estate market would have already completely bottomed and would be, at least, stable. I feel that we may not yet have touched absolute bottom. (If we did, I’m not good enough to pretend I could call it spot on. Frankly, NO ONE IS!) I do feel very strongly that current prices are very reasonable, In many areas, homes can be purchased at 2002-2003 prices. Interest rates are lower than they have been historically, even when compared to the boom years. I saw a 30-year-fixed at 5.0% in February with no points. (That’s like FREE!) Now interest rates have gone up, but are currently just under 6.0% for a 30-year-fixed. Considering that the supply of new homes is dwindling, this should help to stabilize things sooner rather than later. BUT, there is one major problem.

This article, including charts, links to previous reports, and a link to this month’s full MLS report, is continued on Michael’s website. Please click here to continue.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Statistics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.