Greater Phoenix Blog

Metropolitan Phoenix home prices have dipped in the past year, but economists say not to expect a freefall of Arizona’s housing prices.

Home sales and building have cooled statewide since 2005, but so far, "worries about a bursting housing bubble have not become reality," according to the February issue of the Arizona Blue Chip Economic Forecast.

It cites information from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight that show Arizona home prices were up 10 percent during the fourth quarter of 2006 compared with the fourth quarter of 2005.

Helping Arizona home prices are cities like Yuma, Prescott and Flagstaff, which posted double-digit gains in 2006.

The Valley’s home prices climbed 3 percent during the same period.

Nationally, home prices were up 6 percent.

Metro Phoenix led the nation for home price run-ups in 2005 with an almost 50 percent jump, according to the federal housing agency.

The Valley’s median resale home price fell about 5 percent last year.

The Blue Chip Economic Forecast is compiled from economist’s consensus forecasts and published by the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center, an affiliate of the L. William Seidman Research Institute in the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.