Tucson Average Sale Price up $15,000 in Feb 2009

Average Sale Price up $15,000 in Feb 2009 over January 09 and up $23,000 over December 08

All of last year (2008) the average sale price of a home in Tucson dropped. It started the year at $265,000 and ended at $200,000. During the past 5 years we would see months where it would jump up and then drop back down the next. This was usually due to several million dollar plus properties being sold and raising the average sale price.

This was the first thing I thought of when I saw this rather large raise over January’s average of $208,133 . I ran a query removing the million + homes from the results and still got an increase of $11,000.

There are still sales coming in and they will continue for the next couple of weeks (even though they are all supposed to be entered into the Tucson MLS 2 days after closing) Which would mean by Wed. March 4th they should be entered into the system, but history dictates that even with a $250 late entry fine, there will be at least a dozen additional entries.

Typically those sales entered during those last few days bring the average sale price down. But it won’t bring it down by more than $15,000.

This means we might have hit that proverbial “Bottom” and prices are starting to raise. Just one month rise isn’t enough to show if this is an anomaly or bottom has indeed been reached and we will see a slight increase in sales prices in 2009.

I didn’t expect an increase at all during February. January was up $8,000 over December.   But a one month increase wasn’t anything to get too excited about since the median sale price continued to decline to $163,250 I also didn’t expect that when an increase did finally come it would be more than a couple of thousand dollars in that first month. To see this size an increase two months in a row is indeed an eye opener and raises questions about what it means. At this point it really is too soon to tell. However, it is an increase and a substantial one at that.

Median Sale Price Jumps UP $163,250 to $179,900

Even more interesting is the median sale price has gone from $163,250 in January to $179,900 in February.   An increase in both Average and Median Sale price again could signal the turn in the real estate market.   As the Financial crisis rises for Wall Street, we might be seeing the turn in the real estate market so many have been looking for.

Now with the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit in effect till December 1, 2009 we could see more buyers in the market. Hopefully the decline has stopped and a return to a stable or slightly raising market will mark 2009.

At this point even a little good news is good news.