Report: Maricopa housing market on positive pace

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Foreclosures are down. New home sales are up. And an increase in housing permits is expected.

A report prepared by a Scottsdale-based real estate and consulting firm shows Maricopa keeping a positive pace in a housing market still on a path to recovery. 

“I think everything points to continuing recovery,” said Danny Court of Elliot D. Pollack & Company, the firm that prepares the city’s housing reports. 

The foreclosure rate in Maricopa currently is lower than many Valley cities, according to the report. The rate has dropped from nearly 83 percent in June 2009 to about 30 percent last month. The March percentage is lower than rates recorded in Phoenix, Casa Grande, Gilbert and Glendale. 

The report also points out an increase in new home sales during the past year with an average of 18 sales per month. This is up from 13 sales per month, reported in February 2012. 

According to a March report prepared by Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, a short supply of resale homes in Pinal and Maricopa counties priced below $150,000 is forcing buyers into the new home market. 

And an overall shortage of homes for sale is pushing up prices. 

The median single-family home price in Maricopa and Pinal counties went up 4.3 percent from January to February, according to the business school report. 

Mike Orr, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at ASU’s business school, said there could be a short-term upward movement in prices for the Phoenix area overall, but after a few months, it gets “more muddy.” As more sellers come into the market, prices are driven down. 

The housing shortage in the market is less pronounced in Maricopa than the rest of the Phoenix area, Orr said. The supply level isn’t as low as other cities, and in turn, the upward price movement for the city isn’t as dramatic as nearby communities. 

This has a lot to do with Maricopa being an ideal place for new development, he said. 

But resale home prices for the city are increasing significantly because of a declining inventory of distressed houses, according to the consulting firm’s report. Of the 560 homes listed for sale in Maricopa as of March 1, 166 were foreclosed on or in the foreclosure process. 

Maricopa Mayor Christian Price was happy to hear the positive news for the city’s housing market. 

“It’s great news, and it’s part of the economic recovery,” Price said.

The Maricopa City Council will hear a presentation on the report during its 6 p.m. study session tonight.

But Price said he remains “cautiously optimistic,” adding that a tax reform bill heading through the state Legislature could harm the city’s development. State lawmakers have proposed wiping away a local construction tax – something Price said could greatly harm the community’s growth.