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According to RisMedia (the self-proclaimed leader in real estate information systems), the Phoenix area is the nation’s most popular city for home hunters in 2009. The figures come from ZipRealty, a national brokerage firm.

Zip Realty produces a Home Hunter Report, which measures the volume of the total number of home searches on their website throughout the year. Based on searches made through their system, the metropolitan Phoenix area was by far the most popular for home buyers in all of 2009.

The problem I have with this announcement is that there is no evidence that every person who used ZipRealty’s website turned into buyers. In fact, there is no evidence that they were, or ever turned into, buyers. People may have been curious about our area, but never had any intention to actually buy. So perhaps it should said that the report shows that of people using their site, the most interest was in information on the Phoenix-Scottsdale-Mesa area. I realize that such a title for the report is less sexy, and would probably get much less attention.

In any event, the actual ratings of the most popular cities searched in 2009 were:

  1. Phoenix
  2. Scottsdale
  3. Orlando
  4. Summerlin (Las Vegas community)
  5. Chandler
  6. Mesa
  7. Gilbert
  8. Henderson – Green Valley (Las Vegas metro)
  9. Atlanta
  10. Kissimmee (Orlando metro)

What I do know is that home prices have dropped significantly since 2007 in the Phoenix metro area (as well as in Florida and Las Vegas). Since there has been a significant amount of national press reports about those declines, people are likely to be curious about those areas. Because of the decline, buyers should be focusing their attention here, but we all know there are many more lookers than actual buyers.

If you are a home hunter interested in buying in our area, or just need some information about the “Valley of the Sun”, give us a call or contact us through our website, www.simplysoldaz.com.