Sedona Real Estate Update – August 2012

The dog days of summer have arrived… warm days, getting cloudy in the afternoon, then a bit of rain and unparalleled sunsets almost every night.  Days are already getting shorter and the evenings are getting cooler (upper 60’s) – so the best time of year is near.  Our warm days have signaled that we’re past the midway point in our summer slowdown and we’re about to get busy again in September for the Sedona real estate market.  Much has happened since my last update – many luxury homes have sold, and we’ve continued to narrow the inventory of homes in the most popular price range (sub $400k).

Short Sales and Foreclosures have thinned out considerably – currently making up 11% of the overall inventory of single Family homes in Sedona.  This marks a 33% drop in distressed sales – as the percentage was 17% for over two years.  Distress sales make up 23% of the SOLD residential properties in 2012 – as opposed to 40% in the prior years.  This shows a serious shrinkage in the number and availability of distressed homes in town.  Certain price ranges are starting to go away as well… for the last 18 months there were dozens of homes in town under $250k – but now there are only 14 currently available.  I believe that the time is coming quickly when this market will disappear again – mark my words.

On the upper end of the market (over $1M) we sold 15 homes in 2011 – and we’ve already had 16 sales of residential properties this year to date.  It appears that people are already feeling more confident about the state of the economy and future promise for growth and this is translating into a healthy market for luxury homes in Sedona.  Price per square foot has come down a bit, but this segment of the market is doing well compared to the past few years!