April brought a mix of opportunity and warning signs for Arizona real estate investors focused on single-family rentals.
🔹 Sales Market Trends
- Active Listings: 23,501 – Up 54.3% YoY. Inventory is surging, signaling a cooling market or seller urgency.
- Median Sold Price/SF: $258.28 – Down 2.4% YoY. Prices are softening, creating buy opportunities.
- Days on Market (DoM): 53 – A 20.5% increase YoY. Homes are taking longer to sell.
- Mortgage Rates: 6.76% – Still elevated, keeping downward pressure on demand.
- Building Permits (12-month total): 47,535 – Steady supply growth points to long-term affordability improvements.
🔹 Rental Market Trends
- Rental Listings: 4,823 – Up 20.5% YoY. Competition is rising for landlords.
- Median Rent $/SF: $1.39 – Up 2.2% YoY. Modest rent gains offer some inflation hedge.
- Rental DoM: 31 – Up 19.2% YoY. Leasing is slowing, but still active.
- Eviction Rate: 14% (5,963 filings this month) – Up 44% MoM. A serious red flag for tenant quality and rent collection.
🔍 What It Means for Investors
- Rental income is growing slowly, but not enough to offset rising costs and longer vacancies.
- Evictions and tenant screening are more critical than ever.
- Cash-flow focused investors may find deals as prices decline and motivated sellers emerge.
- Now’s the time to get professional property management in place to maintain control and limit risk.