Betty Beard
The Arizona Republic

The number of single-family homes for sale in the Southeast Valley reached 11,521 last month, which, if not a record, is at least the highest number in recent years.

The last time the Southeast Valley had listings in the 10,000 range was in late 2002 and early 2003, according to the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service Inc.

Realtors and housing analysts believe the number of listings is high because investors have begun dumping houses, home sales are usually slow in the beginning of the year and people who wanted to move held off because it was so difficult to buy another home for about a year.

“A lot of people were probably waiting to see what was happening with interest rates and home values. So they finally went ahead with their listings,” said Gayle Mylek, with Keller Williams Legacy One in Gilbert. “And a lot probably thought they could get the high values.”

The median prices hit $250,000 for three-bedroom homes, $340,000 for four-bedroom and $167,000 for condos in January.

And the average time on the market lengthened to 47 days, compared with four days in January 2005 and 68 in January 2004.

Robert Rucker, the multiple listing service’s chief executive officer, said he couldn’t determine that 11,512 is a record because the records are not set up easily to compute that.