INSIDE TUCSON BUSINESS:  Mon., Aug. 24, 2009

Permits Hit New High

While closing of new home sales in July slipped from June, the number of permits issued for the month hit a new high for the year.  There were 225 permits pulled for new single-family residences in July, beating June’s number by five permits. Year-over-year, though, the number is down from July 2008 when 311 permits were pulled, according to the Housing Market Letter from John Strobeck of Bright Future Business Consultants.

Pima County led all government entities with 71 permits in July, followed by Sahuarita with 50. Tucson had 44,  Marana 29 and Oro Valley five.  There were 181 new home closings for the month, a 19 percent drop from 224 in June. Resale closing totaled 1,288 and more than one-fourth of them were foreclosure sales, according to Strobeck.

“Over the past decade, the ratio of new construction home closings to resale closings has been in the one out of every three or one out of every four homes sold was a new construction home,” Strobeck wrote. “This has changed dramatically as new construction homes continue to lose market share and in July one out of every 6.32 homes sold was a new construction home.”

While the median price for a new home rose nearly $1,000 to $184,236 it is still the second month in a row where the median price is below $200,000. Also, the median resale value without counting foreclosures was $180,000, just $4,000 less than the new home pricing. With foreclosure included the median resale price is $165,000 and the foreclosure median price for July was $120,000.