A lot more millionaires are buying metro Phoenix homes.
Sales of homes priced at $1 million or more in the Phoenix area have jumped 36% during the past six months, according to the Cromford Report.
In 2019, a record 2,132 houses with seven-figure price tags changed hands Valley-wide. That’s up 7.6% from 2018.
And the pace isn’t slowing down.
“So far in January, sales priced at $1 million or more are already 54% higher than in early 2019,Tina Tamboer, senior analyst with Cromford, told 375 real estate agents earlier this week at Bobby Lieb's HomeSmart Elite meeting.
Business owners, doctors, lawyers and second-home buyers from California and other states are some of the biggest groups of million-dollar homebuyers in the Valley.
Of course, there are many mansion buyers who don’t want their names known. We're seeing more limited liability companies purchase houses priced at $1 million or more in metro Phoenix.
Some use fun names like Hippo Boy LLC, which bought a $4 million Scottsdale condo in August, and Happy Golfers LLC that purchased a $2.3 million house in Scottsdale last October.
Those who pay to form a Delaware LLC can hide their names from property records because that state doesn’t require disclosure.
To see who is buying million-dollar homes, check out azcentral's five priciest home sales each week.
Recently, an ESPN play-by-play commentator bought a Scottsdale mansion for $5.8 million, the wife of a former Wells Fargo CEO paid $9.5 million for a Paradise Valley estate and a California man snagged a Paradise Valley home for $3.9 million.
The average price per square foot for all Valley houses has climbed from $168 in August to $189 now partly because of these bigger and pricier home sales, according to Cromford.
The price per square foot for houses with more than 3,000 square feet — the size of most million-dollar homes in metro Phoenix — climbed from $200 last year to $226 now.
Metro Phoenix’s mansion prices are deals for East and West Coast buyers.
Many of those buyers sell much pricier houses outside of Arizona and then pay cash for their million-dollar houses in the Valley.
Buyers really don’t have to be millionaires to purchase a house with a seven-figure price tag, but most are wealthy.
The average monthly payment on a $1 million mortgage is about $5,000.
Paradise Valley and Scottsdale have most of metro Phoenix’s million-dollar mansions. But houses and condominiums from north Phoenix to Peoria and Chandler are now fetching prices above $1 million.
The Valley’s median home price is $285,000, so the million-dollar market is still far out of the reach of most of the area’s residents. But it can be fun to look.
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8040. Follow her on Twitter @Catherinereagor.
