We enter the Tucson real estate market with enthusiasm, looking forward to an up year.  2013 saw prices rise more than 10% to an average list price point of $197,805 as of the end of November, and an average sales price of $191,763.

The median price point in November was 159,500; half the properties sold were less than that price and half were above that price.  A total of 15 homes were priced at $29,900 or less and one property sold for more than $1,000,000.

Tucson and Arizona in general, felt the pain of the real estate market debacle long before much of the rest of the country.  I was in a coaching program at the time with three other agents from the east coast and a coach from the northwest.  These professionals gave me the impression they believed I was just lazy because I kept talking about our market and what was occurring .  Little did they realize there was a lesson in what I was saying – far beyond laziness- and this too would hit them.

Because Arizona is a non judicial foreclosure state, which means lenders do not have to go to court in order to foreclose on a property, the shortest length of time given a lender to foreclose, is six months.  Much of the distressed property has been sold, and unless Congress reinstates the Mortgage Forgiveness Act, homeowners will be paying taxes at their marginal tax rate, on the amount of forgiveness.  This may cause people to try and work through their financial situation and wait for their home value to appreciate with the market.