Betty Beard
The Arizona Republic

Housing prices continued to bump up and down in January throughout the Southeast Valley, with Ahwatukee Foothills and Tempe showing the most improvement. Mesa had the least.

Jay Butler, director of Arizona State University’s Realty Studies, cautioned that resale prices for existing homes in January and February are the worst predictors for the year because those months traditionally have the lowest numbers of sales.

People typically don’t shop for homes around the holidays.

In general, median prices haven’t bounced back to the high levels of the first half of 2006, but some areas have seen some improvements over recent months, according to the January numbers from Realty Studies.

Ahwatukee Foothills’ median reached $360,000, the highest since August and a 6 percent improvement over the previous January. Tempe’s median grew 5 percent over the year to $282,950. That was an increase over November and December, but lower than medians recorded through most of 2006.

Chandler’s median reached $305,000, the same as the previous January but the highest since the $308,000 recorded in August.

Gilbert’s January median of $319,000 fell 5 percent from the previous year and also fell from December’s median. The town’s median was generally lower in the second half of 2006 than the first half.

The median price in Mesa dropped to $235,000, a 2 percent decrease from the previous year and lowest since October.

“Mesa is such a big geographical thing,” Butler said. “If we went into its submarkets, we would find some areas doing well and some not.

“It appears people are looking to return to the older neighborhoods, to things closer by. They may be paying a little more.”

He said areas such as Dobson Ranch in Mesa, Tempe and south Scottsdale are seeing more people buying older homes and fixing them up to live in.