By Angela Gonzales | Phoenix Business Journal
Homebuyers who missed out on the buyer’s market last year might soon be getting another opportunity for value.
“Buyers are going to get another chance at a buyer’s market,” said Tina Tamboer, senior housing analyst for The Cromford Report.
Overall, the housing market is heading back into balance, but there are some cities in the peripheral areas of the Valley where it’s already a buyer’s market, she said, pointing to Queen Creek, Maricopa, Casa Grande, Gold Canyon, and Litchfield Park.
“Surprise, Peoria and Sun City are in balance,” she said. “Everything else is a seller’s market.”
On the outskirts of town, buyers can find some deals, said Todd S. Hall, agent with eXP Realty.
“For those looking for great below-market deals and amazing incentives, the buyers market definitely creates builder motivation that creates better pricing and incentives,” he said.
Metro Phoenix is facing what brokers call a “lethargic” housing market as rising mortgage interest rates have put both buyers and sellers on lockdown.
Most sellers are “interest-rate locked” in their current homes, said Keith Burton, Realtor with Rider Elite Team, where most will not give up their lower mortgage interest rates on their existing homes to purchase another home at a higher interest rate.
“In Arizona, just over 42% of the homes are owned outright,” Burton said.
Of those, 91.8% of homeowners with a mortgage are locked into a rate under 6%, while 82.4% have rates below 5% and 62% have rates below 4%.
“I am taking all my buyers and clients that currently have leases to the new home builders,” he said. “They have much better interest rate promotions and incentives that existing homes can’t match. That is why the new home builders are selling their spec and quick move-in homes.”
But over the past couple of days, mortgage interest rates dropped back down from 8% to around 7.38% after the Fed announced it wouldn’t raise interest rates, Tamboer said.
“But it’s unclear whether or not that’s going to stay,” she said. “There’s a lot of things that are contingent right now on which direction price is going.”
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