Phoenix homes at 76 days: are active listings distorting the picture?

[anika_vale]

We’re deciding how much urgency to bring to a Phoenix search in two neighbourhoods. For coastal homes priced from $316,000 to $474,000, my sample is sitting at roughly 76 days on market. The longest-running outliers mostly seem connected to service charges.

Are recent completed sales showing a similar timeline, or am I overweighting listings that remain online precisely because they have not attracted a buyer? The citywide average seems too broad to help with these two areas.

 

[OrlaIves]

Active listings alone will usually give you a distorted sample because the homes that sell disappear from it. I’d compare recent completed sales with withdrawn homes, then note how many new listings entered the same price band. That should tell you whether 76 days reflects the local market or mainly a cluster of difficult properties.

 

[woodworksAndWorkshop]

Before comparing anything, what do you mean by “coastal home” in Phoenix, and how are you drawing the two neighbourhood boundaries? Also, are the service charges mandatory recurring charges or something else? If the category or map area is inconsistent, a few outliers could move your result substantially.

 

[clear_lane]

I wouldn’t rely too heavily on completed deals either. They reflect homes that reached agreement earlier, while a rise in new-listing volume or recent price cuts could be changing the choices buyers have now. Sold data answers what cleared; current listings help show what sellers are competing against today. You need both rather than treating one as definitive.

 

[hugo_cedar]

Split the sample into four groups: sold, still active, withdrawn, and price-reduced. Within each group, keep the same neighbourhood boundaries and price range, then separate homes by condition and whether service charges apply. Even without a citywide average, that should reveal whether the 76-day figure is broad-based or driven by a small subset.

 

[OrlaIves]

Fatima’s questions matter here. If “coastal home” is a portal category rather than a consistent physical property type, jack may be mixing unlike listings. I’d also record the date of the first price cut, not merely whether one happened. A home reduced early tells a different seller-motivation story from one held at the original price for most of those 76 days.

 

[TaliaNorth]

Buyer financing may be another dividing line. Two similarly priced homes can attract different pools of buyers if their condition or recurring charges affect what purchasers can comfortably carry. That does not mean the charges caused every long listing period, but it is worth testing before concluding that the whole neighbourhood has slowed.

 

[xavi_flint]

If the search timetable has to be set now, I would not let the 76-day headline create urgency until the two neighbourhood samples are matched properly. Waiting for perfect data is impractical, but active listings alone may overstate how long a typical sale takes.

Could jack confirm the exact neighbourhood boundaries and whether the same definition of “coastal home” was used throughout? I would then compare recent completions with current listings in the $316,000–$474,000 band, matching condition and recurring charges, and record first price reductions as a clue to seller motivation. Withdrawn stock should sit in its own column. If the comparable groups remain close to 76 days, the figure is useful; if they separate sharply, stale or withdrawn properties are probably distorting it.