There were more sales in the month of August than we’ve seen in any month in years! We had 151 residential sales, compared with 119 in August of 2012. The number of sales in Flagstaff this summer has increased 28% over last summer. This demand has led to continued price increases.
However, as you would expect, more properties have come on the market as prices and conditions have improved, which has offset some of the shortage that was driving up the prices. While we still have substantially fewer homes available now than two years ago, we’re basically back to last year’s levels. This is the same trend we’re seeing with pending sales – the number of homes under contract is higher than two years ago, but about the same as last year.
Add to this the fact that interest rates have jumped up considerably in the past two months and it begins to create some uncertainty as to whether the real estate market will see further gains or whether it will stabilize at the current level. A lot of it depends on whether the economy has improved enough to support more demand in the housing market.