Friday, August 10, 2007

AZ

AZ Family


For an area that continues to see more and more houses going up, experts say many of their values are less and less every day.

“It's an unsure market. Nobody can tell what's going to happen,” said Realtor Ben Garrett.

Garrett has been tracking the Valley housing market for about three years – long enough to see the peak in 2005 and the problems the market faces now.

While the average sale cost has actually gone up about $14,000, the average value has dropped from $179 to $171 per square foot.

“And that's giving a false sense of security that this market's continuing to rise when it's really not," he said. "The cost per square foot is getting less and people are getting less for their houses when they're selling them than they were the year before.”

And as a result, far fewer houses are selling at all.

Garrett said during this same week in 2005, more than 2,100 homes sold throughout the Valley. In 2006, 1,200 sold. This year, only 713 have sold.

And in addition to the sluggish market, there has been a flood of foreclosures – about 27,000 Valleywide so far this year.

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