The Arizona numbers for March are out. "Metropolitan Phoenix's resale housing market continued to slow in March. There were 7,265 existing homes sold in the Valley last month, a steep decline from the frenzied pace of March 2005 when buyers snapped up 10,035 resales. The price for a typical Valley resale home was $263,000 last month. The median is down only $2,000 from February."

"Last year, sellers had the upper hand. Now, buyers have the leverage and, agents say, they are making sellers suffer. 'Sellers got greedy last year,' said (realtor) Diane Watson in Scottsdale said. 'Buyers are greedy now. For buyers to bite right now, they need a really compelling reason,' she said. 'They've either got to move, or it's a job situation. Other buyers, they just want to wait.'"

"Jay Butler noted that the first quarter of this year was the weakest since the first quarter of 2003. 'Prices will start to come down in certain areas,' he said. 'Some of the older areas will hold prices better. We will see some decline.'"

"The Mesa resale housing market dropped from 1,125 sales a year ago to 830 sales in March. Butler said that while the trend toward normalcy continues, the overall direction of the local resale housing estate market would probably not become clearer until the second quarter."

"Among causes for concern; interest-only and negative amortization loans accounted for 55 percent of sub-prime mortgages in Arizona in the first 11 months of 2005. That figure appears to have increased compared with the full-year figure for 2004, 42 percent."

"Charles Ruscher, a lecturer at Eller College called the state figure horrendous. 'When you have kind of a bubbled real estate market, you're looking at probably inflated values. Even if the bubble doesn't pop, if it starts to deflate, those people are going to be in a position that's going to be impossible to repay the loan,' Ruscher said. 'If the real estate market stalls, slows down or starts to decline, then they're stuck with an asset that isn't worth as much as what they owe on it.'"

"Recorded sales in the city of Phoenix decreased from 2,835 sales to 2,300. The Scottsdale resale home market declined from 810 to 550 recorded sales. In Glendale, the resale home market decreased from 695 a year ago to 570 sales. The Sun City resale market fell from 215 to 150 sales; resale activity in Sun City West also fell from 95 to 65 sales."

"The resale market in Gilbert decreased from 605 to 355 sales. For the city of Chandler, the resale market slowed from 680 to 510 recorded sales. The resale market in Tempe decreased from 230 to 190 sales. Avondale fell from 235 to 160 sales. El Mirage decreased from 120 to 60 sales. Goodyear declined from 225 to 95 sales. Surprise decreased from 450 sales to 285 sales."