A sign in front of a home for sale in the Sam Hughes neighborhood near the University of Arizona, September 2024.
New data from Realtor.com show that the Tucson area's housing market may be cooling off after years of fast price growth.
The report shows that home prices are down by 1% in the last year, and price per square foot is down 1.2%.
The slight price drop paired with a 47.4% increase in active listings and an 8-day increase of median days on the market to 52 could be a sign of a cooling market.
"In combination: prices coming down a little bit, inventory building up really significantly and time on market slowing, it paints a picture of a market that's starting to soften–to cool off and shift more toward a buyer-friendly state much more so than over the past few years," said Hannah Jones, a senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com.
Jones said for years, Arizona has seen an exaggerated version of national trends, and this decline is a continuation of that trend.
"What the U.S. is seeing, Tucson is seeing more so. Prices are slowing down a little bit more, inventory is building up a little bit more, and price reductions are picking up a little bit more. So it's softening more than the national market."
She added that this could be the start of some opportunity for buyers who have been waiting to get into the market, though prices remain above what many potential buyers can afford.
Tucson's real estate market has been on the increase for years, but that growth picked up as the COVID-19 pandemic made homebuyers want to leave expensive cities and seek places with better affordability.
Realtor.com data show that since February of 2019, Tucson home prices are up 38.7% and price per square foot is up 55.7%.
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