The city of Maricopa proves to be the most affordable city in the entire Valley to purchase a home.
Just perusing the internet, whether checking out Facebook, or maybe even watching the local news, we are inundated by numbers, forecasts and speculations into what MAY happen later this month or next year.
Sometimes I even see pop up news articles that are interestingly enough about our fair city, and somehow they popped up on my web searches or my local news. I still wrestle with trying to figure out if they are written by local experts or someone sitting in an out of state office trying to decipher the Maricopa Real estate market having never been down the 347!
The truth is, and I drive on the 347 all the time, is that the market in housing Maricopa is absolutely in proportion to the rest of the Valley, and in this specific case the word “proportional” is synonymous with the phrases “crazy, insane, out of control or scorched earth”
The Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) encompasses Maricopa, Pinal and Cochise Counties, and is the data base that all homes listed with real estate agents appears on.
In a “NORMAL” housing market, there are usually about 20,000 homes for sale throughout the Valley at any given time. Currently, there are only 3804 homes active with no accepted offers listed for sale which equates to buyers having a lot fewer homes to choose from.
In March of 2019, the Valley had 2.7 months of supply which means that if zero additional homes were listed it would take 2.7 months for those homes to sell. In March of 2020, the supply had dwindled to only 1.3 month supply, but as it stands right now in March of 2021, the valley has only a 15 day supply of homes.
Currently about 2000 homes are listed each week, and this is the lowest amount of listings added in the past 20 years.
My goal was to put each of the cities head to head to find out how Maricopa compares price wise to the rest of the valley.
Pinal County has the top 3 most affordable cities in the Phoenix metro area with Maricopa taking the lead followed by Casa Grande, then San Tan. (two years ago Casa Grande was #1 and Maricopa was #2)
As far as how fast homes are moving after being listed, a well-priced, nicely showing home is going lightning fast, everywhere in the valley. The more expensive a home is, the longer it generally sits on the market. In a normal market, the average time a listing waits for an accepted offer would be about 70 days, but currently in the valley, it is about half that!
One item to keep in mind is that when I say the higher tiered priced homes sit on the market longer, that actually applies to even the sub markets in each city. For instance in Maricopa the homes listed at 265k sell on the average 14 days faster than the most expensive homes in the $425,000+ range.
The last criteria in comparing the affordability in the valley is the price/sqft of the cities included.
If a buyer is just beginning their search of homes in the Phoenix area, and they are specifically looking at “bang for the buck”, what will they find in their search?
That’s easy…. What they will learn from the data compiled is that if they were considering the West Valley, they may want to begin their search in Tolleson or Avondale, but if they were thinking SE Valley, Maricopa and Casa Grande will currently give them the most home for the lowest price.
With the current market, long gone are those days of making an offer 10% under asking price and requesting the seller provide a home warranty and concessions. Presently in the entire valley, 48.87% of homes closed HIGHER than the listing price! 24.58% closed AT asking price and 26.54% closed UNDER asking price.
Tips for buyers:
- Make your best offer initially. Some sellers may be so inundated with offers, they may only reach out to the top tier of offers. You may not get a change to adjust your offer.
- Consider letting sellers stay in home xx days after closing gratis.
- Remove any contingencies that you feel comfortable removing (appraisal/inspection).
- Think outside the box (sometimes you can find out what the seller “wants” and tailor your offer accordingly.
- If you as a buyer are not currently living in the Phoenix metro area, make sure you are working with an agent that you trust and has the availability to view a home on your behalf asap. If your “dream home” isn’t for sale today, it may come on the market tomorrow, and you will want to get your agent in the same day.
- Worst case is a virtual showing. Have your agent set up a facetime from the house and walk you through it. Ask for a floorplan to get room dimensions, when available.
Brian Petersheim is a realtor with Homesmart Success in Maricopa.
Call/text 602.206.9644
BrianPetersheim@gmail.com