Average home buyers are being froze out by investors.
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - A new Arizona State University report shows the dramatic rise in Phoenix-area home prices in the past year appears to be tapering off.
The median price for a single-family home in metropolitan Phoenix rose just 2 percent in June compared to May. Median prices reached $150,000, but that's just a $3,000 increase from a month earlier.
Prices are up 29 percent from last June's $117,000 but are still far below the $260,000 they reached at the market's height in 2007.
Mike Orr of ASU's W. P. Carey School of Business says there are far more buyers than sellers in the market and inventory at the lower end of the market is scarce.
Investors are buying up many homes for cash, freezing out average home buyers who need financing and appraisals.
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