SEAN NGUYEN, Associate Broker

Total 1313 Phoenix homes sold in August 2008 and 562 of them (or 43%)are bank-owned homes (REOs).

Median REOs price was $125,000 while the overall median home price in Phoenix was $162,000.

How do you know your local residential real estate market condition is getting better or worse? What kind of indicator(s) do you use? Your comments are highly appreciated.

I use three primary local real estate leading indicators to evaluate the local residential real estate market condition in Phoenix (AZ):

1/ Pending Sales - the total number of homes went into contract.

2/ Home Sales - the total number of residential homes sold.

3/ ADOM - the average agent days on the market.

When all these three leading indicators improve at the same time, overall market condition is getting better. The reverse is also true.

I can not tell when home prices in the local market increase or decrease based on these leading indicators.

Phoenix home sales in August 2008 rose 33% compared to the same month last year. Number of Phoenix homes sold in August was 1313; only 983 residential homes sold in August 2007.

Data from Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS)shows number of Phoenix homes sold in January 2008 was 573 and that was the lowest number since January 2000 (I don't have data prior to year 2000).

The number of Phoenix homes sold in January 2000 was 1056 and it increased to the highest level (2512 homes sold) in August 2005. This is the time we had average agent days on the market (ADOM) hit the lowest level, 21 days.

The number of residential pending listings in September 2008 were up 46% compared to the same month last year.

Phoenix residential pending listings were 1402 in June, 1743 in July and 1371 in August this year. This make three consecutive improvements in the number of Phoenix monthly sale pendings :))

Although the sale pendings in 2008 were still lower than they were in 2006 and early 2007, but it's quite interesting to watch the numbers in the comming months.

I just want to let you know that ActiveRain.com is a truly search engine magnet.

Last night, around 10:00 pm (09/03/2008), I posted my first blog to ActiveRain.com, "Average Days on The Market (ADOM) Declines Significantly" and my article shows up on Yahoo! this early morning.

I am so glad it works out so well.