GlitchNYC

Housing inventory growth in Phoenix

May 12th, 2006

Housing inventory growth in Phoenix
Originally uploaded by Glitch010101.

Ever blow up a balloon, and then stretch the neck to hear it go “EEEEeeeeee”.

Yeah. This is the sound of the housing bubble deflating. It’s not quite as noticable as letting go of the balloon and having it fly around with a “Pbbbpbth!” but it’s damn annoying, and the balloon’s getting smaller, and it’s certainly not going to blow itself back up.

There was an interesting comment on the housing bubble blog listing “available inventory”, otherwise known as the number of houses currently for sale, in Phoenix. It listed the available inventory on a daily basis from 7/20/2006 to 5/9/2006 (up to the day it was posted!) Seeing numbers this concrete takes the guess work out of where the housing market is headed. The law of supply and demand says that as inventory goes up, prices come down. As you can see, inventory is on a very steep, consistent climb.

Phoenix is one of the “hot” markets of the housing bubble, but certainly isn’t the top of the list. Inventory run ups like this are being seen nationwide, and are leading to price reductions (if the seller is smart) and long waits to sell as bubble flippers all try to cash out at once.

They’re all looking for the bigger sucker right now.