Arizona Home Prices Up 6.7% Y/Y in Third Quarter

Home prices in Arizona rose 6.7% over the year according to the 3^rd quarter 2016 Federal Housing Finance Agency report released November 23. This was higher than the nation at 6.1% appreciation.  Annual appreciation for Arizona metropolitan areas based on the all-transactions index (which includes purchase and refinance mortgages) was as follows: Flagstaff 6.9%, Phoenix 6.6%, Prescott 6.5%, Lake Havasu City-Kingman 5.9%, Tucson 5.4%, Sierra Vista-Douglas 3.5%, and Yuma 3.1%. 

The U.S. added 178,000 nonfarm jobs in November, the bulk of which occurred in professional and business services and health care. The unemployment rate for the nation dropped to 4.6% for the month after staying steady at 4.9%-5.0% for most of the year. 

There were 1,084 bankruptcies filed in Arizona during November. Year-to-date bankruptcies are down 10.5% in the state.

Phoenix home prices rose 5.3% over the year in September. This was just below the national figure of 5.5%, according to the November 29^th release from S&P CoreLogic Case-Schiller Home Price Indices. The September U.S. national index surpassed the peak set in July 2006. Portland and Seattle continue to have the highest over the year home price increases.   

Real Gross Domestic Product increased at an annual rate of 3.2% in the third quarter 2016 according to the November 29 release. This is based on more complete source data than the advance estimate which put the GDP at 2.9% growth. The bump up in growth was attributed to a larger than previously estimated increase in personal consumption expenditures. In the second quarter 2016, real GDP increased 1.4%.

Arizona unemployment moved down to 5.2% in October from 5.5% in September. This is down nearly a full percentage point from this time last year when the state’s unemployment rate was 6.1%. Annual job growth for the state was 1.8% in October with 49,600 jobs added over the year. Education and health services was the sector with the most growth over the year while government, manufacturing, and other services lost jobs.

Yuma County had the largest increase in per capita personal income between 2014 and 2015 at 6.8%. Per capita personal income increased 3.1% in Arizona using personal income data from the November 17 Bureau of Economic Analysis release and Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity population estimates.  Maricopa County had the highest per capita personal income in the state at $43,037 followed by Coconino at $40,292 and Pima at $38,561. Arizona per capita personal income for 2015 was $39,561.