Real Estate in Tucson, AZ
The Tucson Real Estate Market
The Tucson real estate market has steadily been gaining ground since the 2008 market collapse. While the market is no where near where it was in 2008 (before the collapse), it seems that the home values in the Tucson area have been growing steadily since 2012. Some areas the increase is at a snail’s pace while others are moving along at a jog. This is partially due to the number of home foreclosures in the area have dropped dramatically. It seemed like 2008 -2012 you couldn’t drive around any corner in town without seeing another home in some stage of the foreclosure process. While there are still a fair number of homes in the foreclosure process, comparatively speaking, we have very few. That means of the houses that are being sold currently, most are being sold by the owners. What that means to the market can be several things. One of which is that most homes that are on the market are in fair to good condition (not the typical torn up foreclosure), allowing a new home owner to move right in with only minor repairs. With homes being sold in relatively good condition, it helps to force the market to be more competitive, which in turn helps to drive prices back up. As prices and competition go up, homeowners tend to improve their homes more in order to make their homes more appealing. So, the cycle of things repeat and our steady market growth continues.
One other factor I would like to take a look at is the number of homes that are currently on the market and more importantly how long they are on the market before they sell. Of course, these numbers will change greatly depending on what price range you are referring to. Houses in the $150,000 range will sell much quicker then houses in the $1,000,000+ range. For the sake of this blog, I will only talk about houses that are in the $100,000-$400,000 range. From what I have been seeing from the market (assuming the home is valued correctly when marketed), most homes have been selling in under 60 days. While that is not awesome, it is very good which is encouraging. So not only do we have a good supply of people selling their houses, we also have a good supply of people willing to buy those homes. Both of which will cause the house prices to go up. If the current trend is able to maintain itself, then we should be able to continue with positive market growth.
THE RENTAL MARKET
Rental homes also make up a good portion of homes as part Tucson real estate market. If you are looking for a rental, you should be in luck to find something that fits your needs and budget. Rentals also affect the trends in the market. For example, if more people are looking to rent a home instead of buy a home, then there are less people buying houses and vise a versa. Meaning if there are less people looking to buy homes in the area, then sellers will not be able to ask as much for their homes because the market would be considered a buyers market. On the flip side, if there are too many buyers and not enough sellers, then sellers are able to get a better price for their homes and we would be in a sellers market. Currently in Tucson, we have a pretty good mix of rentals and personal residences.
I believe the Tucson real estate market is currently in-between the sellers and buyers markets (although we are still leaning on the buyers market side of the balance). Depending on many factors, like the election, stock market, money lending practices, construction materials costs, and several other things our market could shift either way. It is impossible to predict how any of these factors will affect the market in the future or if they will, but at least we are starting out on more steady ground and will hopefully be able to recover and bounce back more quickly than we did before.