Is Paradise Valley real estate a buyer or seller market?  The answer often depends on each homeowner or potential homeowner’s financial situation, short-term goals, long-term goals, opinions on where they think the market will be in the future, etc.  Today, however, I will go over some numbers on sales and new monthly listings in Paradise Valley that may help in answering the question whether it is a buyer or seller market.

A little Arizona history.  At the end of this report is a video interview with Patsy Lowry.  Patsy is a third generation Arizonan.  She and her husband live in Paradise Valley.  Her husband Ed was mayor of Paradise Valley for three terms, and as mayor spearheaded the Senator Barry Goldwater Memorial Park in Paradise Valley.  This is a must see.  Patsy’s grandfather a Doctor in 1906 hired the first registered nurse in Arizona.  Her name was Josephine Goldwater.  The mother of future Senator Barry Goldwater. This report will compare monthly sales and monthly new listings for the first three months of 2015 to the same months of 2014.  This type of comparison measures any year-to-year increases or decreases.  It negates seasonality.  The data in this report is from the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Services, Inc. Also known as ARMLS. As seen in Table 1, sales of Paradise Valley single family properties were less in both January and February of 2015 compared to 2014.  There were 23 less sales resulting in $28,000,000 less in sales volume.   Then things turned around in March 2015.  March 2015 had eight more sales than March 2014 and had $4,000,000 more in sales volume. In Table 2 we see new monthly listings.  In the first quarter of 2015 there were nine more listings than in the first quarter of 2014.  Where we see a big difference between quarters is in list price.  The average list price for a new monthly listing in first quarter 2014 was $1,863,474 compared to $2,338,362 in first quarter of 2015.

Table 1 Paradise Valley Single Family Properties

                          Sales                                                        Dollar Volume of Sales

            2014    2015    Change     % Change     2014                     2015                 Change            %Change

January       29         18        -11            -38%             $40,788,500      $34,654,900   -$6,133,600        -15%

February     31          19        -12           -39%              $54,983,739       $32,652,407   -$22,331,332       -41%

March         30         38           8              27%              $54,292,400      $58,559,250     $4,266,850          8%

Total            90          75       -15             -17%              $150,064,639    $125,866,557    -$24,198,082    -16%

Table 2 Paradise Valley Single Family Properties 

Listings                                                  Dollar Volume of New Monthly Listings

2014    2015    Change     % Change          2014                     2015                 Change            %Change

January       96         106        10            10%                $168,298,600      $288,217,899     $119,919,299      71%

February     75           56        -19           -25%               $148,355,347       $109,502,900    -$38,852,447     -26%

March          67           85          18            27%               $126,852,800      $179,854,549      $53,001,749       42%  

Total           238        247           9              4%                $443,506,747      $577,575,348      $134,068,601     30%

Average list price of a singe family property in first quarter 2014 was $1,863,474 compared to $2,378,362 in the first quarter of 2015.