Bullhead City, Fort Mohave, and Mohave Valley home sales stats for May, 2010.

Includes all residential property types (Single Family Homes, Manufactured Homes, Condominiums) reported to the Western Arizona REALTOR Data Exchange. No commercial property or vacant land.

Home Sales Level, Median Price Jumps Up

And now for something completely different…

While the number of units sold in May moved up only slightly from April, the median price shot up a surprising 29% – from $83,500 to $108,000.

Sneaking a peak at the month-to-date numbers for June, it looks like more of a blip than a trend, which makes sense. While the Bullhead City inventory has dropped significantly over the last 18 months, there is still an 8 month supply of homes on the market. Supply drives price, so I suspect we’ll need to see that number drop more before we can expected sustained appreciation.

Bullhead City home sales have now increased year-over-year for 19 months in a row.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Bullhead City, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Bullhead City

Fort Mohave Bucks the Trend

The number of homes sold actually dipped slightly in Fort Mohave. There were 33 homes sold, compared to 36 last month.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Fort Mohave, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Fort Mohave

Mohave Valley Keeps Pace

Once again, wild fluctuation in price, but not much change in units.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Mohave Valley, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Mohave Valley

Source: Western Arizona REALTOR® Data Exchange

Related posts:

1. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – February 2010
2. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – April, 2010
3. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – January 2010

The foreclosure market share dipped to 43% in April, with 33 of 77 home sold in Bullhead City going to bank REO homes – the lowest percentage in a year – following a buying blitz in March.

The drop in foreclosure inventory came just in time for human sellers to catch the wave of buyers dashing to beat the home buyer tax credit, bringing some temporary-but-welcome relief to the fierce competition for buyers they’ve faced since banks got in the game a few years back.

The stats:

Bullhead City Residential Sales in April 2010

This first section includes all property types. A breakdown by property type follows.

Site Built Homes

Manufactured Homes

Condominiums

Source: Western Arizona REALTOR® Data Exchange

Related posts:

1. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – February, 2010
2. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – April, 2009
3. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – March, 2010

Bullhead City, Fort Mohave, and Mohave Valley home sales stats for April, 2010.

Includes all residential property types (Single Family Homes, Manufactured Homes, Condominiums) reported to the Western Arizona REALTOR Data Exchange. No commercial property or vacant land.

Home Buyer Tax Credit Frenzy Ends

April 30th marked the end of the Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit (with the exception of select members of the military). The idea behind the tax incentive was to encourage people to buy real estate by giving them what amounted to a rebate on their home purchase of up to $8,000.

I’m not sure if we’ll ever know if it worked, but in Bullhead City it certainly seemed to draw out a bunch of buyers in the first quarter looking to beat the April 30, 2010 deadline. March sales were off the charts.

I’m sure the tax credit was effective in helping some buyers who otherwise would not have bought a home this year. At the same time, I suspect it also had the effect of moving up the timetable for some people that would have bought sometime later this year. So I’m not surprised to see a correction in April, following the highest selling month in 3 1/2 years.

Note however that year-over-sales continue to improve for the 18th month in a row, with April sales up 28% from 2009.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Bullhead City, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Bullhead City

Another Record for Fort Mohave Home Sales

It looks like sales were a little slower to correct in Fort Mohave. With sales outpacing March by one, April was the biggest month in over 4 years with 44 homes sold. Expect to see the correction in May instead.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Fort Mohave, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Fort Mohave

More of the Same in Mohave Valley

There has not been a lot of month-to-month fluctuation in homes sales in Mohave Valley, where the market seems to be slower to rebound than in neighboring Fort Mohave and Bullhead City. However, home prices have been all over the map.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Mohave Valley, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Mohave Valley

Source: Western Arizona REALTOR® Data Exchange

Related posts:

1. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – April, 2009
2. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – February 2010
3. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – March 2010

Summer is right around the corner, which means it’s time to mark your calendar for the 4th annual Bullhead City River Regatta.

The Regatta takes place on Saturday, August 14, 2010, when thousands of people will gather at Bullhead City Community Park for a group float down the Colorado River to Rotary Park.

It looks something like this:

If you register before August 10th, the entrance fee for the 8 mile float is $15. After that is bumps up to $20.

The Regatta is open to teams and individuals, with cash, prizes, and bragging rights up for grabs in several categories.

Last year’s overall winner, The Topock Gamblers pictures above, walked away with 500 bucks!

Regatta weekend kicks off on Friday night with the Ye Gatta Regatta pre-party at Community Park from 5:30 – 10 pm and concludes with the Ye Hafta Afta party at Rotary Park. Good times for all!

For detailed information and registration visit bullheadregatta.com or go directly to the Regatta registration page.

Also, be sure to join the Bullhead City River Regatta Facebook page.

Related posts:

1. Bullhead City River Regatta
2. Floatin’ on the river in Bullhead City
3. Tri State Renaissance Faire Scheduled in Bullhead City

It’s typical for the Bullhead City real estate market to heat up in March, but this particular March was anything but typical. Fueled by low prices, and perhaps a rush to beat the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, home sales broke triple digits for the first time in 3 1/2 years.

55 of the 107 homes sold in Bullhead City were foreclosures (51%), compared to 56% in February.

A few observations I think are worth noting:

• The number of active foreclosures for sale in the Bullhead City area recently dipped below 100, something we haven’t seen since it hit 100 on the way up, before peaking around 200 in late 2008.
• For the first time since the reinvention of foreclosures, the number of them entering the market dropped actually dropped year-over-year. My shadow inventory theorist friends might call that the calm before the storm. We shall see.
• 22 of the 37 site built foreclosure homes that sold in March fetched less than $100,000. Today there are precisely 11 such homes on the market.
• The median sale price of site built foreclosures was $85,000, and $125,000 for non-foreclosures.

The sudden change in the market and the overall economy a few years ago has had a huge impact on nearly everyone. I am reminded of it literally on a daily basis, as we try to help homeowners understand their options so they can make sound, but very difficult decisions.

From a market standpoint, foreclosures have been a necessary evil in terms of correcting course. Before banks entered the market with their REO properties, inventory was growing, and growing, and growing as buyers stood by refusing to make a move. Prices got too high, financing was drying up, and sellers were going upside down. It was an absolute stalemate.

Of course most banks don’t want to hold real estate. They sell for what they can get. With buyers in charge, prices plummeted.

Here we are a few years later and the Bullhead City market is almost back in balance. Foreclosures still account for half the sales, but they are suddenly running low, especially in the very low price range.

“They” say that there are more coming – lots of them. The shadow inventory it’s called, a gang of bank-owned homes that will dump on the market all at once, “they” say. I’m not sure.

In my humble opinion, it’s all about how fast they get absorbed. Foreclosures greased the wheels of our market, and now we have some momentum. That makes right now a pivotal time in our market.

Can we carry that momentum in the long term if foreclosures continue to sell faster than they are replaced?

Do you fall on the shadow inventory side? If so, can the market withstand an increase in supply?

And how will the market react now that the homes for sale under $100,000 is only a fraction of what it was a few months ago?

While you ponder that, here are the stats:

Bullhead City Residential Sales in March 2010

This first section includes all property types. A breakdown by property type follows.

Site Built Homes

Manufactured Homes

Condominiums

Source: Western Arizona REALTOR® Data Exchange

Related posts:

1. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – April, 2010
2. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – February, 2010
3. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – March, 2009

Bullhead City, Fort Mohave, and Mohave Valley home sales stats for March, 2010.

Includes all residential property types (Single Family Homes, Manufactured Homes, Condominiums) reported to the Western Arizona REALTOR Data Exchange. No commercial property or vacant land.

HUGE Month for Real Estate in Bullhead City

It’s been awhile since the number of homes sold in a month hit triple digits in Bullhead City. And when I say awhile, I’m talking August of 2006.

That makes the 107 homes sold in March (up 24% from February, and 79% year-over-year) pretty huge.

I went all the way back to 1996 for some perspective, and found that the record high for homes sold in a single month in Bullhead City is 194 and the record low is 32.

High: August, 2005 – There was a frenzy and real estate was booming like never before. 194 homes sold.

Low: December, 2007 – A couple years later it was the pits. 32 homes sold.

Home sales have been trending up for 17 consecutive months now, but there was this blip on the radar late last year, when November had eclipsed October’s home sales for the first time in seven years. That sign that perhaps inventory would start moving faster got me talking about prices:

But what about prices you ask? Well, I’d say you’re probably asking the wrong question. Or maybe just asking it too soon.

We’re still sitting on close to 12 months of inventory in Bullhead City. While that’s a heck of a lot better than the 22 month supply we had just a year ago, more than 6 months supply is considered a buyer’s market.

The price conversation will make more sense when get closer to that 6 month mark.

At that time the median price was $103,000. Now that the median price slipped from $99,000 in February, to $85,000 in March, you might be asking again, what about prices?

Math says that a bunch of the 107 March sales had to be under $100,000 (since the median sale price was $85,000).

Consider that 33 site-built homes sold for less than $100,000 in March, and 29 new listings entered the market in that price bracket during the same time period. Yet only 7 of those 29 replacements are still available two weeks into April.

T

With the number of <$100,000 houses on the market sliding, and the overall residential supply down to 7.9 months, how long can it be before the median price changes course and moves back over $100,000?

Will we run out?

If so, will more people buy manufactured homes, or will they just quit buying, or will they spend more?

The biggest variable remains the influx of foreclosures. While there’s lots of chatter about the so-called shadow inventory of foreclosures dumping on the market all at once, foreclosures continue to be absorbed faster than they are replaced for now.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Bullhead City, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Bullhead City

Fort Mohave Home Sales Spike 4 Year High

Not to be outdone by Bullhead City, Fort Mohave also put up big numbers with 43 homes sold. The median price dipped as well, going from $129,850 in February to $115,000.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Fort Mohave, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Fort Mohave

Mohave Valley Homes Sales Drop Slightly

Mohave Valley has bucked the trend, dropping in year-over year sales for the last two months – strange considering that didn’t happen for 16 months in a row.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Mohave Valley, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Mohave Valley

Source: Western Arizona REALTOR® Data Exchange

Related posts:

1. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – April, 2010
2. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – February 2010
3. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – March, 2009

Unlike last month when humans actually out-sold banks for the first time in awhile, more than half of the Bullhead City homes sold in February were bank-owned foreclosures (56% of all residential homes and 62% of site built homes) .

The good news? Foreclosures are moving through the system. There have been a couple of factors at play:

First, the number of new foreclosure listings has gone down over the last couple of months even though banks are still foreclosing on homeowners. Artificial or not, the supply of new foreclosures has dropped.

Second, more of them are selling.

As a result, we now have a combined 108 foreclosures for sale today in Bullhead City, Fort Mohave, and Mohave Valley – which is fewer than at any point in 2009.

And the faster they move through the market the better for all of us.

It’s no secret that the presence of foreclosures in the market put serious pressure on prices. If they continue to sell faster than they are replaced we’ll all be better off.

Here’s the breakdown:

Bullhead City Residential Sales in February 2010

This first section includes all property types. A breakdown by property type follows.

Site Built Homes

Manufactured Homes

Condominiums

Source: Western Arizona REALTOR® Data Exchange

Related posts:

1. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – April, 2010
2. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – March, 2010
3. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – July, 2009

Bullhead City, Fort Mohave, and Mohave Valley home sales stats for February, 2010.

Includes all residential property types (Single Family Homes, Manufactured Homes, Condominiums) reported to the Western Arizona REALTOR Data Exchange. No commercial property or vacant land.

Bullhead City Home Sales Up, Inventory Down (AGAIN)

February home sales jumped up 40% from January and an astounding 80% from February of 2009.

At the same time inventory continues to drop and today stands at 618 homes, compared to 707 at the start of February. That’s a 13% drop in less than two months.

The median price did move down from $109,000 last month to $99,000, but one has to wonder how long the low prices can hold up if supply continues to go down and demand continues to go up.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Bullhead City, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Bullhead City

Fort Mohave Real Estate Activity Holds Steady

The number of homes sold in February didn’t move much from January, but year-over-year figures jumped up by more than 60%.

The median price went from $102,500 in January to $129,850 in February. Inventory is about the same, with 190 homes on the market today compared to 185 at the end of January.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Fort Mohave, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Fort Mohave

Mohave Valley Homes Sales Drop Slightly

13 homes sold in Mohave Valley in February, which is actually a decrease in both month-to-month and year-over-year comparisons.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Mohave Valley, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Mohave Valley

Source: Western Arizona REALTOR® Data Exchange

Related posts:

1. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – April, 2010
2. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – February, 2009
3. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – March 2010

In looking at the Bullhead City foreclosures sold in January, we could talk about how foreclosures sold for an average of 98.2% of their asking price and how banks weren’t caving as much on price as they’ve had to in the past to make a sale; or how there wasn’t a huge price difference per square foot between bank foreclosure sales and traditional sales; or how the median price of foreclosures was still a lot lower than the rest of the homes sold. I suppose we could.

But if you want to know what strikes me most about the January figures it’s the number of site built homes sold by human homeowners – not banks.

70% of all homes sold last year in Bullhead City were site built homes, and 60% of those site built homes sold were foreclosures. In fact, there wasn’t even one month last year when traditional human sellers sold more site built homes than banks. Foreclosures made up more than half of the site built home sales for 15 months in a row. Until now.

In January, for the first time in over a year, foreclosures accounted for less than half of the site built homes sold for the month. 25 of the 43 houses sold in Bullhead City were owned by actual homeowners, not banks. It’s noteworthy because site built homes are the sweet spot in the market – that’s where people are buying.

That demand has been driven by foreclosure activity. Seeing banks hold on that sweet spot slip, even for a month, is a big deal.

Here’s the breakdown:

Bullhead City Residential Sales in January 2010

This first section includes all property types. A breakdown by property type follows.

Site Built Homes

Manufactured Homes

Condominiums

Source: Western Arizona REALTOR® Data Exchange

Related posts:

1. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – February, 2010
2. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – January, 2009
3. Bullhead City Foreclosure Report – April, 2010

Bullhead City, Fort Mohave, and Mohave Valley home sales stats for January, 2010.

Includes all residential property types (Single Family Homes, Manufactured Homes, Condominiums) reported to the Western Arizona REALTOR Data Exchange. No commercial property or vacant land.

Bullhead City Real Estate Comeback Continues

Last month I reported that Bullhead City home sales were up 66% from the previous December, closing out 2009 with a strong finish. That momentum has carried over into the new year and 2010 is off to a great start.

There were 63 homes sold in January compared to 45 homes a year ago, making it 15 months in a row that the number of homes sold has been greater than the year before.

Keep a very close eye on prices. The pace of sales is picking up everyday as our inventory of homes for sale continues to drop. There were 683 homes on the market this morning, the lowest number I have seen in a full four years.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Bullhead City, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Bullhead City

Fort Mohave Continues Toward Seller’s Market

I’ve been talking about this for months now. Something has to give in Fort Mohave.

Fort Mohave has been averaging almost 31 homes sold per month for the last year and there are only 185 homes on the market. That’s a 6 month supply and it’s been dropping.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Fort Mohave, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Fort Mohave

Mohave Valley Keeps Pace with Neighbors to the North

The numbers may be smaller, but we’re seeing a similar pattern in Mohave Valley. Sales picking up, inventory dropping.

The stats:

Monthly Home Sales Comparison – Mohave Valley, Arizona

Year-to-Date Home Sales Comparison – Mohave Valley

Source: Western Arizona REALTOR® Data Exchange

As supply continues to drop in all three markets, lower priced houses are fewer and farther between. This has been especially obvious over the last few weeks as buyers are competing over those houses before they get gobbled up.

Supply drives price, so if this keeps up it’s only a matter of time before something has to give.

Related posts:

1. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – February 2010
2. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – April, 2010
3. Bullhead City Real Estate Report – March 2010