The Magic Zip Code – 85254: Real Estate Market Update July 2019

by dustimartin-chime-me

Many in the real estate industry here in the North Valley often refer to the 85254 zip code as the “Magic Zip Code” which is located in North Scottsdale, just South of the 101 Freeway. But what does “The Magic Zip Code” refer to? Some will snicker and gag a little at the term. Others are bored by the cliche. But others, know why it’s called the “Magic Zip Code” and the history of the area. Here I explain a little about the area, the little known facts about the border between Scottsdale and Phoenix, and what the 85254 real estate market looks like right now in that area. If you are thinking of buying a home or selling your house in the near future, these are numbers you need to know. Watch the video below and see what is going on in your area.

For more market updates in Scottsdale, click here. To search Scottsdale homes or learn more about Dusti, visit www.DustiMartinRealtor.com.

Video Transcript:

00:00 Hey everybody its Dusti Martin from

00:03 Platinum Living Realty. So yesterday I

00:05 did a market update on 85266 which is

00:09 the zip code I live in. It’s the

00:12 borderline luxury market or depending on

00:15 the neighborhood just the luxury market

00:17 it’s a little higher end you don’t

00:19 really see anything under about and then

00:23 so I had some people ask well hey what

00:27 about this zip code so 850 254 is

00:31 currently and for a long time been known

00:35 as quote the magic ZIP code in the

00:39 Valley and I know there’s a lot of

00:41 agents who roll their eyes at that they

00:43 think it’s cliche it’s kind of dumb but

00:46 there’s a reason it makes it so

00:49 desirable easy to sell harder for buyers

00:53 to get into and one of those reasons is

00:57 because it’s a little quasi line between

00:59 the Phoenix and Scottsdale border so a

01:02 lot of that zip code actually has a

01:05 Scottsdale address so and feeds into

01:09 Scottsdale schools like horizon horizon

01:13 high school for those of you who aren’t

01:14 familiar with the area horizon being one

01:17 of the most sought-after and popular

01:21 well performing schools I got people

01:26 blown up the minute I go live that’s

01:28 when people text me so but anyway

01:31 Horizon high school for a long time

01:34 twenty thirty years now has been one of

01:36 the most sought-after schools in the

01:38 valley to try to get your kids into but

01:40 the other thing about being on that

01:42 border right there between Scottsdale

01:44 and Phoenix has to do with the fact that

01:47 you have the prestige of the Scottsdale

01:50 zip code and the Scottsdale schools but

01:53 you’re actually paying Phoenix City

01:57 you’re getting city services like water

02:00 and trash and and the taxes so and

02:04 that’s one thing that people don’t

02:05 necessarily understand so you’ve got the

02:08 lower fees for the City of Phoenix

02:10 fire, water, trash,

02:13 etc. But you still get all the benefits

02:16 of having a Scottsdale address that’s

02:18 what makes it really desirable for a lot

02:20 of people outside of the fact that it is

02:23 really close to the 101 the 51 all the

02:27 dining all the places that people want

02:31 to be in the North Valley without having

02:33 to go too far north or out away from

02:36 easy freeway access so that’s kind of

02:40 how that zip code got its its name the

02:44 moniker the magic zip code so there’s

02:46 other zip codes now in the valley that

02:48 are just as desirable 8500 508 505 for a

02:52 five to five five and to six six it’s

02:56 just it depends on where somebody wants

02:59 to be for that particular for their

03:02 school needs or how close they want to

03:04 be to the freeway and so I’ve started

03:07 calling a couple of other zip codes that

03:09 are real close to there that are super

03:11 highly desirable and still have really

03:13 high performing schools and are still

03:15 close to the 101 and the 51 I’ve kind of

03:17 been lumping those in for Oh probably

03:19 about a year now but that’s where that

03:23 came from

03:23 so let’s jump into the numbers so active

03:26 listings in 85 to 54 year over year are

03:31 actually up forty five point six percent

03:33 over last year so right now it’s got

03:36 about two hundred and forty six active

03:38 listings so for just one zip code

03:40 there’s really not a lot of homes on the

03:42 market still so even though it’s up

03:45 almost 50% over last year which means

03:48 there’s more inventory than there was

03:49 last year it doesn’t really mean much in

03:53 terms of seeing any kind of major

03:56 correction now the sold listings haven’t

03:58 changed so that’s one thing to keep in

04:01 mind so there’s a little more inventory

04:03 it’s getting a little bit easier to find

04:05 inventory and that’s it good for people

04:07 but it’s still pretty limited so for

04:12 example this time last year that was 106

04:15 sold listings you’re today so what we’re

04:21 seeing is we’re starting to see how I

04:22 talked about yesterday our markets going

04:24 to

04:25 correct where we are headed towards a

04:27 recession but it’s not going to be that

04:29 huge bubble the big ups and downs like

04:32 we’ve experienced for the last decade

04:33 we’re going to be transitioning into a

04:36 more normal normal economy something

04:41 that’s a little more stable but what we

04:44 just went through is something that

04:45 really usually only happens once in a

04:47 lifetime and we’re lucky to be out of it

04:50 so think the Nike swoosh should we have

04:52 the big drop down in the long trail out

04:54 so our median sales price though and my

05:01 hair’s looking fabulous is hey you know

05:04 who it is it’s Jen Jones over at Desert

05:06 Ridge Ulta go see her she is the best

05:09 girl in there she does amazing stuff and

05:13 she makes my wild unruly hair do amazing

05:16 things so it’s just a plug and a shout

05:18 out to Jen go see her anyway so back to

05:20 what I was saying the median sale price

05:24 per square foot in a 52:54 is up eleven

05:29 point four percent year-over-year so

05:31 even those sold listings haven’t

05:32 increased and the inventory is up the

05:36 value and the prices of the homes have

05:39 still gone up and that’s because there

05:41 is still a shortage and we’re still

05:43 going to have a shortage through this

05:46 entire correction or recession whatever

05:48 you want to call it I think sometimes

05:50 people get a little worried because for

05:52 so long we heard the term recession

05:54 recession recession and it really was

05:57 like a borderline depression and so

05:59 every time people hear a recession now

06:01 they kind of flinch they’ve got a little

06:03 bit uh it triggers a little bit because

06:06 it was so bad for so many people but the

06:09 key to remember is that most recessions

06:11 are very small

06:12 that’s a recession depressions do this

06:15 recessions do this so we’re going to go

06:19 back to having normal recessions normal

06:22 you can think of them as Corrections so

06:25 the median sales price is about two

06:27 hundred thirty one dollars a little

06:30 higher per square foot and June of last

06:33 year was only about 207 sixty something

06:37 so last year this year – this year

06:42 compared to last year we’ve got about

06:44 eleven point four percent increase in

06:47 value which is great because now our

06:49 interest rates have gone down a lot of

06:52 people are getting interest rates below

06:53 four percent again which is lower than

06:57 it’s been in the last year and before

06:59 things correct this is a really good

07:01 opportunity for sellers to get out of

07:03 their property take and the biggest

07:05 chunk of the money they can but then

07:07 also for buyers to buy before rates go

07:09 back up to four five six percent so

07:13 statistically like this and numbers-wise

07:16 this is a really interesting time it’s a

07:19 good little bubble here in the next

07:21 couple months for buyers to get in at

07:24 lower rates and have more buying power

07:25 but then also sellers to take advantage

07:28 of the increased value that they got

07:31 over last year because it’s going to

07:33 kind of even out so the main difference

07:38 between a five to six six and a five to

07:42 fifty four is the number of luxury

07:46 properties that you will see so even

07:48 though eight five to fifty four does

07:50 have luxury properties just have

07:51 multi-million dollar homes

07:54 it doesn’t have as many so you’re still

07:56 going to see like an upper middle-class

07:57 and mid to higher range number of

08:03 properties or value of properties that

08:07 the month supply is actually up forty

08:09 five point six percent now that sounds

08:12 like a lot that’s like almost double

08:14 what it was but the thing to keep in

08:18 mind is that the month of supply in a

08:20 85254 is only 2.3 months

08:24 worth worth of supply so anything under

08:27 four is a seller’s market last year it

08:30 was 1.59 to 1.6

08:32 something along those lines so you’re

08:36 going from this white-hot seller’s

08:37 market where sellers can push above

08:40 whatever the latest comps were pretty

08:43 hard and but now we’re starting to see

08:47 that correction it’s got its

08:48 moving back towards a more even stable

08:50 market for buyers and sellers and so

08:53 even though it’s still a seller’s market

08:54 you’re gonna see people who here’s doing

08:57 funny things you’re gonna see people who

08:59 are still trying to overprice the home

09:01 and sell it at last year’s value or even

09:03 January’s value and it’s not going to

09:05 work

09:05 buyers are going to walk away appraisers

09:08 are not going to appraise they’re gonna

09:10 have it over listed it’s gonna sit on

09:12 the market and then it’s not gonna sell

09:14 they’re gonna get frustrated with their

09:15 agent why didn’t you tell me this is

09:18 where you need a data nerd to come in

09:19 and say hey this is where the trend is

09:22 comps only told you what happened

09:23 yesterday you have to look at the

09:25 inventory to know what is happening

09:28 today not yesterday we don’t care about

09:30 yesterday we don’t care about last year

09:32 we care about what’s going on today and

09:34 that’s what makes inventory months of

09:37 supply the important factor to look at

09:41 so with that said the median days on

09:43 market right now it’s actually up thirty

09:45 eight point six percent it’s at 61 days

09:48 so still yeah it’s up really high but

09:50 figuratively speaking

09:52 if 90 days is a stable market in eight

09:54 fifty to fifty four meaning flat

09:56 even-keel 90 days when it’s neither and

09:59 the buyer nor the seller’s ballpark or

10:04 it doesn’t favor the buyer over the

10:07 seller let’s call that the even stable

10:09 market for these purposes if 90 days is

10:13 even we’re still at 61 so that means

10:17 that’s still pretty low and it’s still

10:20 in the seller’s favor so it’s still

10:23 going to be competitive out there it

10:25 might not be as competitive instead of

10:27 having eight people trying to compete

10:3 for one house you might have one or two

10:32 or three depending on how you list the

10:35 property and the strategy that you use

10:38 if that makes sense but like I said

10:40 overall it’s still a seller’s market you

10:44 just can’t push those prices a little

10:46 too much you’re gonna be on the market a

10:48 little bit longer and keep in mind it’s

10:50 61 days if 30 days is the length of the

10:53 transaction sixty days is nothing and

10:56 in a month you’ve got your house sold

10:57 and then the second month is just

11:00 waiting so the so the thing to keep in

11:05 mind is that we’re kind of in a little

11:08 bubble right now where it’s beneficial

11:12 for seller to be selling and buying

11:15 right now

11:17 buyers can get in and lower interest

11:19 rate and sellers can sell at pretty much

11:22 if we have a correction we may not see

11:27 prices dip but we’ll at least see them

11:30 stay even if not go up two to four

11:33 percent but it’s not going to be that 11

11:35 to 15 or even 19 percent depending on

11:37 the zip code or the neighborhood if you

11:40 guys have any questions let me know

11:42 I love nerding out I love the fact that

11:45 somebody said hey what about my zip code

11:46 I love that the other thing is is I have

11:49 buyers and waiting

11:51 not just in 85 254 but 85050 and

11:54 85054

11:58 two five four two six six and three

12:01 three one so if you guys have any

12:04 questions let me know if you know

12:05 anybody who’s thinking of selling their

12:07 home in 20 19 or 20 let me know I have

12:10 buyers and waiting and still not enough

12:12 inventory and that’s pretty much how the

12:15 cookie crumbles today have a good day

12:17 you guys talk to you soon bye

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Dusti Martin

Agent | BRSA651351000

+1(480) 717-9405