Jim Little, Your Sun City Arizona Realtor

I checked the numbers for single family homes in Sun City today.

• Active Listings, Up 415 houses listed
• Pending Sales Up 84 under contract
  
• Sold for the month Up 61 closed for month to date
  
• Sales year to date 758
• Sold price per square foot up
  

This is happening as our winter visitors are arriving. It looks like they will have a good inventory to choose from, but they did seem to miss the "bottom".

Yesterday, I finally got around to evaluating the Sun City Market by housing type. ie Single Family vs Condominium. I used the last six weeks of MLS data for this. (9/1/09-10/14/09)

I have long felt that the single family home is more desirable to most of the buyers who come to Sun City, but have never done the analysis required to prove it.

As you can see from the following spreadsheet, homes sell one third faster than condos. The lesson, if you are a buyer, and want to buy a home, you must make up your mind quickly as more snowbirds will be here competing with you. If you are a seller, be patient.

The market ratio is a new metric I am using. A ratio less than 20 indicates a buyers market. A ratio of 20-30 indicates a balanced market. 30 or more is a sellers market. As you can see, the single family home segment is very close to a buyers market now, but the condominium segment is still a strong buyers market.

And, The Numbers For September Are:

1. Active Listings as of 10/1/09 689
2. Average List Price $135,500
3. 79 homes sold
4. Absorption Rate 9 months
5. Number of Single Family Homes for Sale 357
6. Number of Condos for Sale 332
7. Average Days on the Market 135

The Sales prices ranged from $46,900 to $470,000 with an average of $125,484. This represents an average price per square foot of $81.98.

The Year to Date Sales Are:

1. Total Number of Homes Sold 1/1/09-10/1/09 799
2. Number of Single Family Homes Sold 1/1/09-10/1/09 457
3. List Price/Sold Price of Single Family Homes $148,913/$138,454
4. Number of Condo Style Homes Sold 1/1/09-10/1/09 342
5. List Price/Sold Price of Condo Style Homes $102,448/$98,718

Overall, we have survive the summer relatively well. Buyers are now showing up at open houses. This is the beginning of our winter season and the outlook is generally hopeful.

Sun City AZ was Del Webb’s first and premier age qualified community. Mr. Webb envisioned a community dedicated to the wants and needs of persons who were retired, or soon to retire. He knew these buyers were active and wanted to remain so. Sun City was built with a recreation center, (now 7) a golf course, (now 7 + 3 country clubs) and stores all completed by the first day of sales. With the addition of Boswell Hospital, Sun City became a virtually self-sufficient community, unique then and still unique and desirable today. The following are 5 of the many reasons people move to Sun City AZ:

Climate. Without a doubt, this is the foremost reason people move to Sun City. The Arizona economy used to be based upon the “4 C’s:” Climate, Cattle, Copper, and Citrus. Of these, only Climate and Cattle remain important. Unfortunately, Cattle is becoming less so. Our climate provides warm, sunny winters with minimal rain, almost no snow (you can visit it in less than 2 hours if you wish). Cost. Homes in Sun City today, 9/2009, range from a $40,000 1 bedroom condo to $450,000 semi-custom homes on a golf course or a lake. (Yes Virginia, we have lakes) There is a home in Sun City to suit the needs, wants and budget of almost everyone. Convenience. Sun City AZ has the benefit of being part of the Phoenix metropolitan area, with fine dining, museums, hospitals, parks, theatre, symphony and universities, and professional sports teams like the Diamondbacks, Cardinals and Coyotes. Health. This has historically been a major reason why people move here. The climate has long been known to be beneficial to arthritis sufferers. Sun City is home to Banner/Sun Health and Boswell Hospital, leaders in the treatment and research of age-related problems. Recreation. This is a subject too big to be covered adequately by any one post. I’ll write more on this soon. For the time being, did you know there are 120+ clubs sponsored by the Sun City Recreation Association? There is something here for anyone. Yes, we have shuffleboard, but also softball, recreational and competitive swimming, bocce and lawn bowling, fine arts and crafts, in short, if you cannot find a club to share your interests, maybe you have no interests.

Jim Little, Your Sun City Neighborhood REALTOR®

It is always a big thing in Sun City when Fall comes. Up in the northern areas of the country, you probably mark the day you first see geese heading south. Here in Sun City, we count the first Minnesota license plate sighted. It is a better measure of the season than the weather, which still is in the 100 degree range. The nights are much cooler now, and the days are a little bit shorter.

In spite of the change of season, we have plenty of sunshine for those who would like to come here and get out of the pending winter storms. I have posted some pictures of Sun City recreation on Facebook, view them here.