Resale home prices up more than 10% in most of SE Valley

David van den Berg
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 12, 2006 04:34 PM


Home prices are climbing, while sales are falling around the southeast Valley.

Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek all saw their median home prices rise more than 10 percent the first eight months of 2006, according to a Republic analysis of data from the Information Market.

And in all three Ahwatukee Foothills ZIP codes, median prices rose more than 10 percent.

The data show new homes were more expensive than resales in all parts of the southeast Valley except the Higley section of Gilbert. New-home prices were not available in Tempe or Ahwatukee Foothills.

New homes coming to Higley are mostly in Trend Homes and KB Homes communities. They tend to be on smaller and less conventional lots than traditional single family home lots, and therefore less expensive than new homes in other communities, said Charles O'Dell, a Realtor with Re/Max 2000 in east Mesa.

"They're doing a great job of offering affordable housing," O'Dell said.

The Maricopa County section of Queen Creek saw the largest overall price increase in the southeast Valley, at nearly 39 percent. But the number of homes there fell by more than half through the end of August this year.

Median home prices rose 16 percent in Chandler from 2005 to the end of August, the data show. Sales dropped from 9,730 to 4,117.

Data for Gilbert and the Higley section of town were separated. Prices in Gilbert jumped more than 15 percent from 2005 through the first eight months of 2006. More than 8,000 homes were sold in 2005, while more than 3,500 have been sold through August in Gilbert.

Median home prices in the Higley section of Gilbert rose 11 percent while sales dropped from 779 to 487.

The 85045 ZIP code in Ahwatukee Foothills saw a price increase of about 34 percent, while sales dropped from 380 to 163. Prices rose 11 and 14 percent in Ahwatukee's other ZIP codes, while sales also declined.

In Tempe, median home prices climbed more than 14 percent, while sales dropped from 1,977 to 1,068.

Median home prices in Mesa climbed more than 11 percent, while sales dropped by about half. One ZIP code in Mesa, 85207, saw a drop of 28 percent in its new-home median prices. That ZIP code was the only one in the southeast Valley where any drop in prices occurred through the first eight months of the year.