Housing Update
June 2024
MAG has compiled a variety of data sources and analysis on the topic of housing and affordability in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler Metropolitan Statistical Area (Phoenix MSA) region.
Below are the highlights from the latest housing update as of June 2024. This analysis will be updated as new data becomes available.
Construction and Developments
The housing industry changed after the 2008 recession. This chart shows the total number of residential units that were built in Maricopa County each year since 2000. In the early 2000s, an average of around 40,000 per year were built, with a peak of 48,700 in 2005. After the recession, the number of units built dropped to 6,600 in 2011 and has been increasing since then, reaching just over 35,000 units in 2023. From 2000 to 2010, there were 389,400 units built. Since then, the total number of units built dropped by 25% in the past 12 years (2011 to 2023), with only 290,800 units built.
This chart focuses on the number of apartment units built per year. There is a similar pattern to overall units built (above), but still slightly different for apartments. After a low of 230 units in 2011, the number of apartment completions increased and recovered to about 7,000 each year from 2015 to 2021. In 2022, there was a significant increase to 10,635 apartment completions. Then in 2023, there was another increase to nearly 13,600 units built in the year. With the reduction in total completions over the last decade, the share of apartment units built has increased by 16 percentage points since 2000.
Residential vacancy rate has decreased by more than half since 2010. This chart shows overall vacancy rate in gray while the blue bar shows the resident vacancy rate, excluding seasonal units. Resident vacancy rate has dropped from 12% in 2010 to approximately 5% since 2020.
Residential Sales
Median sale price in the Phoenix MSA has stayed fairly stable over the past two years. The gray line shows May 2022 to May 2023 and the teal line shows May 2023 to 2024. Since the last peak in June 2022, median sales price has declined from a high of $475,000 to $450,000 in May 2024.
Additional metrics that show changes in the housing market are total inventory and days on market. Total inventory listed for sale has increased 39% compared to a year ago, while the average number of days on market has decreased to 66 days as of May 2024.
26% of the residential properties in the region (approximately 376,000 properties) is either seasonal- or investor-owned. This map shows properties owned by people outside of Arizona and outside of the U.S. 42% of properties are owned by people out of state. The top 2 states in which out-of-state owners reside are California and Washington. 4% of the housing stock are owned by international owners, most commonly from Canada.
In the Phoenix MSA, sales transactions under $300k have decreased by 75 percentage points since 2011 but the trend remained fairly steady from 2022 to June 2024. This chart shows the number of sales transactions by price. There have been very few transactions under $200,000 the past several years. Sales under $300k (dark blue and green bars) dropped from 90% in 2011 to approximately 13% to 14% since 2022.
In the Phoenix MSA, availability of apartment units with rent under $1,000 decreased significantly since 2010 but has stabilized in recent years. This chart shows apartment rent over time by cost. The darker blue represents apartment units with rent under $500, which dropped from approximately 20% in 2010 to virtually none in the past few years. Units with rent under $1000, the light green and dark blue parts of the bar together, have dropped from over 90% in 2010 to only 7% as of June 2024.
Newer apartments (post-2018) are charging 12% higher rent than all existing apartments. Apartment rent on a per square foot basis is higher for apartments built since 2018 than all apartments.
Evictions and Cost Burden
Severely cost-burdened households are households paying 50% or more of their household income on housing costs, whether mortgage or rent. This map shows number of severely cost-burdened households in different areas across the region. In areas with darker blue, more households are spending half or more of their income on housing expenses. Across the Phoenix MSA 239,000 households are severely cost-burdened, 13% of households.
Multi-family renter households have the highest percent of households that are severely cost-burdened in the Phoenix MSA. This chart shows severe cost burden by household type. Nearly 15% of total households are severely cost-burdened. The group with the lowest percentage of cost burdened households is households that own their home. Renter households have a higher likelihood of being cost-burdened, with 27% of multifamily renter households severely cost-burdened.
Maricopa County eviction filings reached a new high in October 2023 before decreasing again by the end of the year. Pre-pandemic, monthly evictions filings were around 6,000 (seen in gray on the chart above). The blue bars show how evictions were affected by the pandemic and eviction moratoriums in place at the time. The major dip was in April/May of 2020, but evictions started to increase again shortly thereafter and continued to increase, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
Explore More Data
The Regional Analytics Division has a variety of additional data, maps, and tools available at the following links:
Contact us with any questions or feedback at [email protected].
Sales data is not available for this geography at this time
Median Sales Price in
Number of Overall Sales Transactions
Source: The Information Market
Note: A three-month rolling average was used for this analysis due to the smaller sample of sales transactions
Price Trends in
Source: The Information Market
Median Sales Price Comparison
Click on column headers to sort table by selected field.
Source: The Information Market
Notes:
- This analysis uses medians ("middle" value in the data) rather than calculating averages
- Data is shown where available, some geographies are excluded due to insufficient or missing data
- Analysis of Apache Junction and Queen Creek includes Pinal County portions, Wickenburg includes Yavapai County portion
- A three-month average was used for the following jurisdictions due to low number of sales transactions: Carefree, Cave Creek, Fountain Hills, Litchfield Park, Paradise Valley, Tolleson, Wickenburg, and Youngtown
Median Rent in
Source: RealData, Inc (50+ unit complexes only)
Note: Dashed line represents the overall median rent for selected geography
Apartment Rent Trends in
Source: RealData, Inc (50+ unit complexes only)
Rent data is not available for this geography at this time
Median Rent Comparison
Click on column headers to sort table by selected field.
Source: RealData, Inc (50+ unit complexes only)
Notes:
- This analysis uses medians ("middle" value in the data) rather than calculating averages
- Data is shown where available, some geographies are excluded due to insufficient or missing data
- Apache Junction and Queen Creek include Pinal County portion
Monthly Eviction Filings in
Source: Maricopa County Justice Courts*
Note: On this chart, gray represents pre-COVID numbers
Evictions data is only available for jurisdictions within Maricopa County
Click on column headers to sort table by selected field.
Source: Maricopa County Justice Courts*
*Note:The analysis on this tab only uses eviction filings with a valid address/location within Maricopa County; it excludes eviction filings with an unknown location and also excludes sealed eviction filings
Distressed Properties in Maricopa County
Note: This tab cannot be filtered by geography and the chart will only show the total for Maricopa County.
Source: The Information Market
Notes:
- Foreclosure data not available for the Indian Communities; the Maricopa County portion of Apache Junction is also not included
- "Foreclosures" comprise all residential properties that have already been foreclosed and have not yet been purchased
- "Pending Foreclosures" are all residential properties that have received a letter stating the property will be foreclosed upon but has not yet been foreclosed
- “Distressed Properties" sum both "Foreclosures" and "Pending Foreclosures"