Facts and figures on the sale prices of homes are often confusing and can even be misleading. One problem is that many of these statistics combine both new and resale prices into one data point. In a marketplace where there is a significant difference between the prices of new homes and the prices of resale homes, it is more helpful to analyze price changes within new homes separately from resale homes. Combined numbers tends distort each other, because of the greater numbers of resale transactions, and the higher price of new home sales.
Also recent average price gains in the Phoenix metro area touted by the media are mostly the result of appreciation in the lower segments (below $300,000). Increases to homes in the higher price ranges have been much slower.
Another issue is the failure to acknowledge that as the sixth largest city in the U.S., there are great variations in the pricing of housing in the various areas of the greater Valley of the Sun. Even zip code market statistics on average or median price and inventory can give the wrong impression when applied to another area in the same zip code. Analyze only your neighborhood to obtain realistic value estimates.
