Pinal Housing Market Cools...

Pinal housing market cools, from the Arizona Republic, reports that sales volume for resale homes fell 22.6 percent in Pinal County from the first quarter 2005 to the first quarter 2006, marking the third consecutive quarterly decline, according to the Arizona Real Estate Center at ASU. The median price for an existing home stood at $211,500, down 3.9 percent from the $220,000 median in the fourth quarter of 2005. According to the Arizona Regional MLS, the number of resale homes on the market stood at 4,342. "The Pinal County resale market is slowing as is the overall housing market," said Jay Butler, director of the ASU center. "The problem is that this market doesn't have a history, so we don't know what's normal. This housing market only came into existence five years ago," he added. Pinal County new-home sales rose 30.2 percent over the first quarter 2005, to 3,640 homes, and the median new home price surged 45.1 percent to $244,835. Housing analyst RL Brown said the Pinal County market is in the midst of finding normalcy after a bustling 2005. Builders are offering more and more incentives to draw buyers to their subdivisions amid the slowdown.





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