December 2013 Sedona Real Estate Market Update

I’ve got 100 excuses for why there isn’t a October or November version of this newsletter – but let’s just chalk it up to the REALLY busy market conditions.  Let’s start with the easy stats  – there are currenly 407 homes on the market in Sedona (areas 40-46), and a whopping 74 in escrow with buyers, so that leaves only 333 truly available homes. This level of activity is above past years and is a sure sign of the recovering market.

The average price per square foot in town is hovering around $203 per square foot – but remember – this is for an “average” house with “average” views in an “average” location.  This dollar amount works if you’re looking for an investment home or something simple, but if you’re looking at custom homes with views – prices can be closer to $300 per square foot or higher.

The # of homes sold YTD is approx 6% higher than last year, and the $ volume of sales is up approximately 11%.

Over the last 3 months – the average Sedona home sale was a 2048 sq ft home that SOLD for $419,327 – showing an average price per square foot of $198.  If we compare this to the same 3 month period in 2011 (2264 sq ft home w a SOLD price of $355,402 – w/ an average ppsf of $154) – it shows the strides that the market has taken in a short period of time.  Those quarterly comparisons (with a smaller sample size) magnify the annual statistics which show price increases of 18% over the last two years.  Our official outlook is that we expect the market to level off (as the inventory levels already have) and expect an appreciation more in the 5-6% annual rate that’s consistent with Sedona’s long term gains.