River Cities Business Journal: Cover Story

Kingman housing market improving; March home sales were the first improvement in 2 years

Kingman Daily MinER

KINGMAN - We may not be out of the woods yet, but according to the last several months of data, Kingman's housing market appears to be slowly recovering from the nadir that was 2007.

Sharon "Shay" Givans is a Realtor with Century 21 Highland. She's also the 2009 President-elect of the Kingman/Golden Valley Association of Realtors. She said that while it's hard to say whether or not the local market has bottomed out for certain, signs seem to be pointing to a uptick over last year's sales figures.

"We're definitely trending upward as far as homes sold," Givans said.

Looking solely at single-family residences, Givans said 35 homes were sold in January and only 27 in February. Then, for the first time in two years, the market finally began outpacing the previous year's figures. In March, 49 homes were sold, followed by 52 in April and 93 in May.

"Right now we're at 41 for June," Givans said. "The majority of closings are typically at the end of the month," she noted.

Givans said the primary reason more homes are being sold is because prices are finally dropping to levels buyers find reasonable. Houses within the $140-160,000 range have been selling the best thus far this year, with the median price for June hovering around $157,000.

“What's really happening in the market is prices are trending down,” Givans said.

Another indication things are turning around is, as house prices drop, so are the number of days houses spend on the market. While a house on the listings in January averaged 192 days on the market, the average June listing has only been for sale 168 days. June has shown a decrease in new listings as well, only 79, down from 134 in May.

“When you're having more sales, less listings, then that means the market is beginning to trend upward,” Givans said.

She did not, however, go so far as to say the market has hit a bottom just yet.

“I think we are very close, but that's just my opinion,” she said. “This is a great time to buy because rates are good and there's lots of inventory. I'm definitely more optimistic.”

Todd Tarson is another Kingman Realtor with RE/MAX Preferred Professionals. Tarson conducts his own analysis of the housing numbers each month on his personal blog, “MOCO Real Estate News.” He takes his sample data from a smaller area encompassing Kingman proper, north Kingman, the Hualapai Mountain area, and the Valle Vista subdivisions. (www.mocoreal.blogspot.com)

Tarson is also optimistic about the market, but much more guardedly so than Givans.

While his numbers agree that sales since March have been edging out 2007's, Tarson noted the first two months of the year were the worst he's seen since he started tracking data in 2004.

“In 2006 clearly you can see activity falling off a cliff, and then in 2007, none of the figures beat 2006,” Tarson said. “I predict 2007 won't be hard to beat this year, but the first two months of this year were historic lows. They were the lowest numbers I ever posted.”

Tarson also pointed out that, while home sales are higher than they were a year ago, they still have yet to come anywhere near earlier levels. The 52 homes sold in his coverage area for 2008 only barely edged out last year's figure of 51.

“In 2005, in April, we sold a little over 90 homes,” he said. “92 in 2005, 52 in 2008.”

Tarson also expressed concern that, even though there are plenty of homes for sale at increasingly reasonable prices, the demand for those houses could be best generated if people saw Kingman as a place worth moving to. As long as the local economy continues to stagnate, he said, that wasn't likely to happen.

“We have a surplus of homes for sale,” he said. “There's too many of us trying to sell to too small of a population of buyers at this time.”

But even so, Tarson felt that as long as the key factor - pricing - continues to fall, the local housing market will continue its slow climb out of the dregs regardless. Just don't expect 2004 sales figures anytime soon.

“I've seen things lately that give me some level of optimism,” Tarson said. “I've been busier than I have in the last year. As more homes become affordable in Kingman at the prices people are looking for, more homes will sell.”