Some Arizona sales numbers are out. " The pace of Valley home resales continued to fall in January, the Arizona Real Estate Center reported Friday. With 5,260 recorded sales in January 2006, the greater Phoenix resale market fell from 6,480 sales in December 2005 and from 9,360 sales in January 2005."

"'The primary news of last year's housing market was the rapid rise in the median home price from $194,000 in January to $260,000 in December,' said Jay Butler. 'However, since the record of $263,000 was set in September, the growth rate has disappeared, with the median price being $257,000 in January.'"

"The Phoenix resale home market decreased from 2,685 sales to 1,635 sales. Scottsdale's resale home market declined from 785 to 400 recorded sales. Resales in Mesa declined from 1,060 to 615 sales. Glendale decreased from 640 to 410 sales. The Sun City resale market fell from 160 to 100 sales. And resale activity in Sun City West also slowed from 95 to 40 sales."

"The resale market in Gilbert fell from 565 to 310 sales. Chandler's resale market slowed from 625 to 330 recorded sales. Tempe's resales decreased from 195 a year ago to 140 sales. Avondale fell from 220 to 150 sales. El Mirage resales decreased from 150 to 70. Goodyear's resale home market fell from 195 to 100 sales. Surprise decreased from 370 sales to 165."

And a reader sent in this site. "The Phoenix metropolitan area continues to experience strong growth in the numbers of specs and subdivisions. The following details substantiate this claim. We expect both trends to continue for at least several weeks."

"We have been predicting that early in 2006 the spec home inventory would surpass the all-time high count of 2,400 from May 2003. With 92 more reported in the past week, the market now boasts 2,431 spec homes! The old record has been surpassed. Looking back, we see there are now almost three times as many spec homes than only 3 months ago. And since the lowest level recorded in 2005, the spec home inventory grew over six times!"

"In the last week alone, we have recorded 12 new subdivisions! Now at 715, the market has 154 more subdivisions than in the fourth week of January 2005. Since the lowest count in 2005, there are now 244 more subdivisions. We have witnessed a growth of 67%. The last time we recorded 715 subdivisions was during the summer of 2004."