New figures released Thursday morning show the volume of sales in the Arizona real estate market was down over the last year. But, RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist said that is because the market is in transition between a distress market and a fully healthy one.
“We now see the distress getting lower, the stress portion of the market fading and getting less and less and even though that’s a good sign for the market that is taking away a source of supply for many buyers and market (or) investors and was helping to drive sales in the market," Blomquist said.
Blomquist said that vacuum is not yet being filled by people putting homes up for sale or by homebuilders with new homes, but he thinks that could change over the next few months. He said homeowners who were underwater will start to recognize they have equity and put their homes on sale in hopes of moving up to better properties.