Phoenix listings around $144,000–$216,000: is 59 days misleading?

anika_vale

Real estate agent
Established
The Phoenix-wide average is not helping with the two neighbourhoods we are considering. Among detached homes priced from $144,000 to $216,000, my current sample suggests roughly 59 days to find a buyer. The longer-running listings mostly appear to need maintenance.

Before deciding whether that gives buyers room to negotiate, should I put more weight on recent completed sales? I am concerned that the homes still online are a distorted sample.
 
Yes, active listings alone will skew the picture. The attractive or correctly priced homes leave that group first, while stale listings accumulate. Recent completed sales should help, but they also look backward. I would compare closed, pending and active properties of similar condition within each of your two neighbourhoods rather than treating any one group as definitive.
 
Also, what exactly does the 59 days measure: an average or median, and time until pending or until closing? A few very old listings can move an average substantially. Check whether relisted homes have had their days reset, because otherwise two apparently different listings may represent one long marketing attempt.
 
I would not assume maintenance explains most outliers without looking at price history. A visibly dated home can still move quickly if the discount is convincing. Conversely, a clean home may sit because the seller is inflexible. Financing matters too: some property-condition issues may reduce the pool of buyers even when the asking price looks competitive. How much new stock entered your sample this month?
 
Withdrawn stock is another missing piece. A listing that disappears did not necessarily find a buyer, so counting every removal as market success would make demand look stronger than it is. Price-cut timing may be more revealing: note whether reductions happen early and lead to a pending sale, or only after the home has already sat near that 59-day mark.
 
Keep the neighbourhood boundaries consistent. Citywide figures are too broad, but drawing them too tightly can leave you reacting to a handful of unusual homes. If the two areas have little activity, expand only into nearby pockets with comparable housing and access, then separate properties by condition instead of mixing renovated homes with major maintenance projects.
 
A practical worksheet could have one row per property: original price, latest price, condition, listing date, pending or closing date, and whether it was withdrawn. Then compare similar homes across active, pending and completed groups. That should show whether 59 days reflects normal buyer timing, late price cuts, or a residue of listings whose sellers have not adjusted.
 
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