The small increases in Phoenix housing prices that began this spring will likely continue for only a month or two longer, then flatten out for "an extended period," said Karl Guntermann, a professor of real estate who calculates the ASU-Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI) at the W. P. Carey Sc

The market for foreclosed homes in the Phoenix metro area appears to be approaching a turn around, according to a new index from the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at the W. P. Carey School.

Looking at the responses from the Greater Phoenix Blue Chip Forecast panelists this quarter, consultant and Greater Phoenix co-editor Elliott D. Pollack asks: "Is the glass half full or half empty?" If the glass is half empty, he says, there will be no quick recovery.

2009 was a record year for real estate transactions in the Phoenix metro market. In fact there were 2,000 more transactions last year than in the previous record-setting year, which was 2005.

The Phoenix real estate market began to turn around in 2009, but the improvement was driven by foreclosures and by investors drawn to the resulting low prices, according to the latest ASU Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI) report.

Real estate experts are watching for signs that the Phoenix market is returning to normal. Activity slowed a bit in November — a hopeful sign because it is consistent with seasonal norms. But the market is still feverish.

The ASU Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI) continued to decline in June, but the numbers contained positive signals that improvement is the trend in the Phoenix metro real estate market.

In this edition of The Economic Minute, economist Dennis Hoffman says that Arizona could be called "ground zero of the worst recession since World War II." The hard economic fact is that Arizona depends on in migration to keeps its economy vibrant, and the state is not exactly a people magnet rig

It's Indian Summer in the Phoenix real estate market: Like a replay of the traditional high sales months, resale activity increased in October -- from 9,070 sales in September to 9,955.

Foreclosures have traditionally accounted for only a small fraction of the real estate transactions in the Phoenix area market, but in January, as in past months, foreclosures were the whole story. Almost half of the existing-home transactions — 45 percent — were foreclosures.