There was an article in US Today yesterday stating the Tucson market is doing very poorly. At the bottom it sites its reference as Remax International. I keep wondering why they did not use the Tucson Board of Realtors Multiple Listing stats. Tucson Mulitple Listing Service has these stats on- line and one can get the monthly multiple-listed real estate stats for the last 4 years, hence for instance you could compare August 2007 with August 2006, etc. To me, these would be the most accurate stats.
Several weeks ago a local news TV show showed photos of a street with many for sale signs– one house for sale right after another. In the Foothills seeing many houses for sale right next to each other is a very rare event, and in fact, I have never seen this! It is a buyers market, but I wish they would paint a more accurate picture. Also different areas are faring better than others–the Foothills has lower inventory and less depreciation than Marana, Oro Valley, Vail or other parts of Tucson, but those who are out of town, especially, do not get the correct picture of the real estate market from the news media. The only thing I can do is keep informing everyone I meet, you included.