Pending home sales, prices on the rise

January’s rise in pending home sales is a critical recovery indicator for Arizona’s real estate market, says Mesa analyst Michael Orr. While that indicates prices are likely to increase, the recovery is expected to be shallow and slow, said the author of the Cromford Report, an online subscription-based resource on the metro Phoenix residential resale market. The latest report shows pending sales hit a record 9,883 in the first week of January 2010 — a 79 percent increase over the 5,530 tally a year ago. The Arizona real estate market peaked in June 2006, with the bottom hitting in April 2009 and maximum inventory of homes on the market in late April 2008, according to the report and Fidelity National Title.

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