Historically, the heat of summer wilts the Phoenix housing market, a phenomenon reflected in the June housing report from the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at the W. P. Carey School of Business.

The so-called millennials, like the baby boomers before them, are causing major shifts as they move through life’s stages. And while boomer retirement is impacting the economy, the millennials are poised to drive even more change.

In the last 12 months major changes have emerged in the troubled Phoenix real estate market — changes that have gone largely unrecognized by the shell-shocked public.

Real estate expert Michael Orr favors price per square foot over median price when tracking changes in the Maricopa and Pinal County market. That’s because price per square foot reveals incrementally small price changes, allowing us to see movement long before median price is affected.

The end of summer brought few surprises in the Phoenix real estate market. Prices were down, as expected, but compared to spring it was a much less frenetic market. Mike Orr, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at the W. P.

Sales activity in the Phoenix real estate market slowed significantly between August and September -- largely due to a drop in foreclosure activity -- according to the monthly housing report issued by the W. P. Carey School of Business.

Activity in the Phoenix real estate market dropped in October – a dynamic as seasonal as the cooling temperatures, because in most years sales slow as the holidays approach. A decline in foreclosures was responsible for part of the overall slowing, according to the report authored by W. P.

The unsettled Phoenix metro real estate market saw foreclosures as a share of the market rise to 29 percent in November, according to a report from W. P. Carey School of Business Professor Emeritus Jay Butler.

You could say that Phoenix is a seller’s market this spring, although there’s very little real estate to buy.

Arizona real estate is often described as driving the economy, but is that true? Economist Dennis Hoffman and real estate experts Mark Stapp and Michael Orr discuss the role real estate has played in the cyclical Phoenix economy.