Unless the real estate market takes another dive, it appears the bottom of the market in Flagstaff was sometime around August 2012. The prices had started to climb earlier in 2012 before dropping again to that low, but have been climbing steadily for the past seven months since then. In fact, the market has made quite an astounding jump since that low point with trailing average and median prices gaining in the ballpark of 10%!
The increase in prices is due to the fact that there are fewer people selling and more people buying, tipping the scales of supply and demand and forcing prices upward. The supply of homes has decreased due to fewer short sales and foreclosures, less desire and ability for people to sell at the lower prices, and the extremely low levels of new construction in the past few years. The demand for housing has increased due to low prices, low interest rates, and pent-up household formation.
There was such a drastic market correction that home prices were likely below their true market value for the past couple years and are adjusting back to that point. It will be interesting to see whether the upward trend takes hold this time and at what level it continues.