The Arizona Republic reports on another inventory record; maybe. "The number of single-family homes for sale in the Southeast Valley reached 11,521 last month, which, if not a record, is at least the highest number in recent years. The last time the Southeast Valley had listings in the 10,000 range was in late 2002 and early 2003, according to the Arizona Regional MLS."

"Realtors and housing analysts believe the number of listings is high because investors have begun dumping houses, home sales are usually slow in the beginning of the year and people who wanted to move held off because it was so difficult to buy another home for about a year."

"'A lot of people were probably waiting to see what was happening with interest rates and home values. So they finally went ahead with their listings,' said (realtor) Gayle Mylek in Gilbert. 'And a lot probably thought they could get the high values.'"

"Robert Rucker, the MLS's chief executive officer, said he couldn't determine that 11,512 is a record because the data are not set up easily to compute that."