Hello, welcome to this episode of Living in Tucson, your Tucson real estate connection. And in this episode, I’m going to talk about home prices in Tucson, Arizona, and what your money gets you.

Hello, Tyler Ford here eXp Realty, and welcome to this episode of Living in Tucson, your Tucson real estate connection. And in this episode, I’m going to talk about home prices here in Tucson and what your money gets you. And I know a lot of people are frustrated out there just because over the last couple years, home values have gotten out of hand and it’s now starting to price some people out of the market. And over the last two years, year over year appreciation. We’ve seen homes appreciate a little over 20% year over year. So we’ve seen a massive increase in home values. And if you look at this chart right here, over the last year, this is single little family homes, the median sales price. So I’m going to do some comparisons of other places in the country. And just keep in mind this chart right here is only single family homes and median not average.

And there’s a difference between median and average. Average is if you take all the sales and divide them by the sales, you get an average. Median is taking out the very top and the very low so the number’s not skewed and it’s a more accurate number in terms of home values. So that chart was median. Last year we started for single family homes in the high twos and now we’re in the mid threes. So again, over the last year, single family homes have appreciated over $60,000 year over year. So I’m going to dive into the numbers and give you a little look in terms of home values here in Tucson, Arizona. I’ve been a licensed agent here for 30 years in Tucson. And to me, Tucson’s always been the best kept secret where home values have been relatively low in regards to other places in the country.

Our property taxes are a lot less than what a lot of other people are used to when they live in other areas in the country and then come to Tucson and look at our property taxes. So from an affordability standpoint, Tucson has always been a really, really affordable place in terms of home ownership and just the cost of living. And over the last couple years since COVID hit, home values have almost doubled. So relative to other parts of the country, we’re still less expensive. And I’m going to jump on over and give you some comparisons. But again, it’s become pretty frustrating for quite a few people, especially first time home buyers or people that have a tight fixed budget. Your money no longer gets you what it used to pre COVID. So I’m going to do some comparisons just to kind of give you an idea and keep in mind, the chart that I showed before was the median single family.

And what I’m going to show you now might be calculated a little bit different, so it might not be exact, but you’ll get the picture in terms of what I’m talking about. Each and every month, the Tucson Association of Realtors, TAR puts out the Tucson housing market report. And if you scroll down into the show notes here, you can go over to my website, tucsonhomesandlots.com and get the most recent market update. So as of January 2022, the most recent numbers in terms of single family homes, I’m going to go over average and median. And in my opinion, the median is a better reflection of the actual sales price because it takes out the top end and the low end. So you’re getting a much better representation in terms of home values, the averages, all of them. So there might have been a $20 million sale at the top that’s going to skew the average sales price.

So as of this recording, the median sales price of a single family home in Tucson was $352,500 of January 2022. So the average sales price, as you see is much higher. And that’s because there was probably a really high end sale that is skewing that number. So the average sales price in January, and this is going to jump around depending on if there was a really low sale or a high sale. So the average sales price was $425,073 here in Tucson. So that’s going on, that’s what’s going on in home values. And I’m going to jump into the MLS and kind of show you what you get for your money. But 200 to 250, a couple years ago would get you a lot of home, but the average or the median sales price, 352 still gets you a really nice home.

And compared to other parts of the country, your money’s going to go a lot further here in Tucson. So I’m going to jump into the MLS and kind of give you an idea of what you’re going to get for your money. So I’m over on Zillow and Zillow’s got a pretty cool thing where you can compare cities to other cities and other places across the country. So we’re going to look at all homes, that’s condos, town homes, picking them all up. Might be a little bit different than the chart that I showed you and even the averages that I’m going to show you for Tucson. But let’s compare Tucson to the United States. So if we do that, so right now, as of this recording, we’ve got the US and Tucson, December 31st. In the US, the average is $373,000 and Tucson is $296,000.

And just to compare Phoenix to Tucson as well because a lot of people look at Phoenix when they’re looking at Arizona. So if we look at Phoenix and home prices here in Phoenix are $390,000. So Tucson’s about a 100,000 less on average. And now let’s just look at single family homes. So single family homes, it’s even a bigger spread when you look at just single family homes. So in the US, single family homes 371, Tucson $339,000 and a big spread between Tucson and Phoenix, when it comes to single family homes. Phoenix, average single family home is $450,000.

So that gives you just a little comparison. So even though we’ve had double digit appreciations over the last couple of years, home values have gone up relative to a lot of other places in the country, Tucson is still inexpensive and you’re going to get more for your money. Again, even though home values have dramatically gone up over the last couple of years. To search for homes in the Tucson MLS, and to get a fill for what’s going on in the Tucson housing market, you can head on over to my website, which is tucsonhomesandlots.com.

And then once you get there on the homepage right here, it says search for homes. And if you click on that, it takes you over to my IDX, it stands for Internet Data Exchange. It ties right into the MLS and you can search for all the home inventory here in Tucson. And one of the things that I’ve done is based on how people search and some of the most popular searches I’ve set those up right here on the homepage. So for example, if you’re looking for a home for a pool, just click there and it’s going to take you to all the homes with pools. So again, to get a feel for the Tucson market and prices, you can head out over to tucsonhomesandlots.com search for homes, which is going to then take you over to my IDX, where you can search for all the home inventory here in Tucson, Arizona.

Like I said earlier in the video, I know a lot of people out there are getting frustrated, they feel that this market’s got away from them. They don’t want to chase it. They’ve just got a gut feeling that this market could turn. And again, from an affordability standpoint, I totally get it. So those of you that feel like you’ve been priced out of the market, I would encourage you to just be patient, continue to save money. Especially if you are planning on buying a home on an FHA or a VA or a low money down, I would encourage you to save more money. And to me, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of wins. At some point, this market will correct. Things do not last forever. And I’ve been through two real estate cycles and I was in the middle of the last one in 2007 and 2008.

And there will be a catalyst at some point that does turn this market and interest rates are starting to tick up a bit. And so as interest rates go up, home affordability becomes more expensive and that could put the breaks on and slow this market down. So again, I would just encourage you to be patient, not chase this market. And if you are frustrated to sit on the sidelines, save up more money and just be patient and the right home will come your way. So what are your thoughts or comments? What do you thinks going to go on in the housing market here in Tucson and across the country for that matter? I’d love to get your thoughts. You can comment below. People are always asking me what my thoughts are in terms of what home values are going to do.

And, although I wish I had that crystal ball and I knew exactly what was going on, what you can do is each and every month go to tucsonhomesandlots.com and scroll down and click on that market report. And that’ll give you an in depth view of what’s going on in our housing market. And one thing to pay attention to and it’s what I look at each and every month, and I look at it daily is inventory levels. To me, inventory levels are the leading indicator. And if you start to see inventories take up and even move up dramatically, that means that this market is starting to shift. So just pay attention, be smart. And at the end of the day, if you are frustrated and feel like you’ve been priced out of the market, I encourage you to be patient and just save more money.

Keep in mind, we’ve got a 16-foot box moving truck. So if you use us to buy or sell a home, you’re more than welcome to use our moving truck. And even after the fact on the road, if you ever need to move appliances or furniture, pick something up at home Depot or Lowe’s and the truck’s available, you’re more than welcome to use our truck. 

I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did do me a huge favor, give me an internet high five by liking it. Again, if you have any comments or questions, go ahead and comment below and for more awesome videos about Living in Tucson, your Tucson real estate connection, go ahead and subscribe to the channel. 

In the meantime, make it a great day.