As I have been saying for some time now, prices bottomed out in March of 2009.

On Wednesday we learned that Phoenix is one of 91 major cities out of 152 nationwide to post an increase in home prices during the past year.

This National Association of Realtors survey showed that prices of existing homes climbed 9.1% in the Phoenix area for the year ended March 31, 2010.  You might have expected that kind of good news would have been a headline — but no.

On Thursday, the following day, there was even better news … yet again buried on page D-2 of the Republic’s Business section:  The median resale price for a single family home in April was $144,000, up 15.2% from $125,000 a year ago.

So there you have it. In historic terms, that is a huge increase.  Several of my clients who have recently purchased homes at great prices realize that, if they had started nine months earlier, they might have realized even more of an increase. I had to confirm their speculation.

So what does all this news mean?  It means the real estate market has officially bottomed out and that home prices are rising. Good news for homeowners hoping to sell in the not-too-distant future. And some homeowners may no longer be upside down.

To investors, I would say “the train is leaving the station.”  A conversation yesterday with one of the top REO (bank-owned property) realtors in our office confirmed that the number of foreclosed properties coming his way has slowed down to a trickle. At a recent national conference several of the large banks indicated they are severing their relationship with thousands of realtors. Apparently the banks are actively pursuing every possible alternative before going the foreclosure route. So MLS investment properties will be diminishing and those that do appear will create a bidding frenzy and prices at the wholesale end should start climbing again.

Attention investors:
My next blog will cover a new option for bidding on line for bank properties and getting them before they hit the MLS listings. Stay tuned.

At present, the rate is down to an astonishing 5.5 – a few years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for a house in Arizona to sit on the market for 25-30 months. Anything under an absorption rate of 6 is considered a sellers market.

What does this mean for those of you looking to buy a home?

The time to buy a home is now – investors are snatching up properties, and the number of properties for sale has dropped significantly:

• During the last year, the number of homes for sale in Maricopa County has hovered at 55,000 – as of April 24, only 44,707 homes are available for purchase.

• In the last 30 days, 8,121 properties closed escrow.

This means more people competing for fewer properties.

While the number of homes for sale has dropped, banks and lenders are listing properties at unbelievable low prices and waiting for buyers to bid up the price within a matter of days. Realtors are getting calls from buyers who are disappointed to learn that the homes they are interested in making offers on are homes with comparable home values sometimes as much at $20-30k above list price and with multiple offers already on the table that are well above list price. For this reason, we will primarily feature properties that are private sales (or what I call retail).

What does this mean for those of you looking to sell your home?

Some tips for those of you looking to sell a home: the prices may bounce along the bottom for some time before we see a price recovery. But I can assure you that the average person (with a loan) trying to buy a foreclosure in the $100k range is up against sometimes as many as 5 or 6 cash buyers. Only one of the those people got the property they were bidding on, which means 5 other properties will be bought by those cash buyers who are getting hungrier each time they get beat out.