Phoenix Business Journal

Although housing permits issued so far this year pale in comparison to 2007, resales made a better showing in recent months, according to The Phoenix Housing Letter.

Resales gained ground in July to hit 5,928 in the Phoenix area, up from 5,072 in the same month in 2007. Forty-three percent of those were related to foreclosures or bank-owned sales. Year-to-date, however, the number of resales still lags -- 32,088 compared with 40,339.

Permit activity for new single-family homes remains below last year's tally. The newsletter reports 1,493 permits issued in July compared with 2,560 a year ago. Year-to-date, the total is 9,738 compared with 23,222.

"While the doomers continue to focus on the plight of those homeowners that are suffering from financial stress from job loss and payment resets, those observers and analysts with perhaps more savvy are seeing some solace in the fact that the market is absorbing as many of these distressed properties as it is, suggesting that the housing consumer that has been absent from the marketplace for many months is stirring as he perceives better values," the report said.

The median price for a home sold in July was $213,198. The median resale price was $188,000.

Source: http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/08/25/daily21.html?b=1219636800%5e1690688