The Phoenix resale market slowed a bit in May when compared to April, possibly because activity spiked last month as the federal first-time home buyer program came to a close, according to Jay Butler, associate professor of real estate and author of the monthly Realty Studies Report from the W.&n

The Phoenix housing market appears to be stabilizing as preliminary data for April shows a 1 percent year-over-year price increase for the first time in almost three years, according to the ASU-RSI (Repeat Sales Index).

The median price for resale homes in the Phoenix area has been edging up for several months. Does this signal that the market is approaching normalcy?

The resale season starts in March with an upswing in real estate transactions, but last month's numbers were much higher than might be expected if this were a "normal" year.

According to the latest ASU-Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI), overall house prices declined by 13 percent in December compared to December 2008, an improvement over the 17 percent year over year decline seen in November and the 20 percent decline in October.

The Phoenix resale home market rebounded slightly in February, according to the Realty Studies Report from the W. P. Carey School of Business. Compared to January, the number of transactions increased and prices were up a bit.

In the U.S. and around the world, the recession is forcing shopping center developers and retailers to re-think the design of the places where we spend our money. Some say the very nature of shopping has changed.

The latest ASU-Repeat Sales Index suggests that the end of the slide for the beleaguered Phoenix metro real estate market may be in sight, but how close it looks depends on how you parse the numbers.

Foreclosures have traditionally accounted for only a small fraction of the real estate transactions in the Phoenix area market, but in January, as in past months, foreclosures were the whole story. Almost half of the existing-home transactions — 45 percent — were foreclosures.

The market for foreclosed homes in the Phoenix metro area appears to be approaching a turn around, according to a new index from the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at the W. P. Carey School.