This Week - Data Releases for the Week Ending
February 10, 2012

by Valorie Hanni Rice
Reference Librarian

The National Association of Realtors released fourth quarter 2011 median sales price of existing single-family homes for metropolitan areas on February 9th. Of the 149 metro areas tracked, 29 saw prices rise as compared to the fourth quarter a year earlier while two were unchanged and 118 had declines. The two Arizona metros, Phoenix and Tucson, were among those that saw prices decline. The average price in the Phoenix metro area for the last quarter of 2011 was 118,800, a decline of 10.2 percent. Homes in Tucson were 130,800 which was a 10.6 percent decline from the year previous. Prices declined 4.2 percent in the U.S. during that time.

Initial unemployment claims were down nationally last week according to the Thursday release. They dropped to a seasonally adjusted 358,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 373,000. The four-week moving average was 366,250. In Arizona, initial claims were 5,432 for the last week of January, a drop of 172 from the week prior. The four-week average was 6,145.