Dataquick: Phoenix Region March Home Sales

(Dataquick) -- Other Phoenix region March highlights:

 *Foreclosure resales, defined as homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months, fell to 31.8 percent of March resales – the lowest level since April 2008, when they were 31.5 percent. March’s figure was down from 34.3 percent the month before and 53.0 percent a year earlier. The peak level for foreclosure resales was 66.2 percent of all resales in March 2009.

*Short sales represented an estimated 13.3 percent of March’s resale activity, down from 15.6 percent the prior month and up from an estimated 12.5 percent a year ago.

*Lenders foreclosed on 2,387 Phoenix-area homes in March, down 6.9 percent from the month before and down 60.2 percent from a year earlier. The number of homes lost to foreclosure between January and March this year totaled 7,900, down 53.2 percent from the same period last year.

*Absentee buyers, who include investors and vacation-home buyers, bought 46.1 percent of all Phoenix-area homes sold in March, up from 43.3 percent the month before and down from a record 47.1 percent a year earlier. In March, absentee buyers paid a median $116,900, up from $102,000 the month before and up 16.9 percent from $100,000 a year earlier.

*Buyers paying cash represented 44.8 percent of March home sales, down from 45.5 percent the month before and down from 45.4 percent a year earlier. The record for cash buying was 48.0 percent in February 2011. March’s cash buyers paid a median $112,000, up from $101,000 the month before and up 26.6 percent from $88,500 a year earlier.

*Buyers who had a foreign mailing address in the public record represented 4.9 percent of total Phoenix-area home sales in March. Of all homes bought by a buyer with a foreign mailing address, nearly 70 percent were resale single-family houses, while about 23 percent were resale condos and about 7 percent were newly built homes.

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