A stretch of central Phoenix running through Midtown and Uptown just posted the single biggest home-price jump anywhere in metro Phoenix over the past year, with values climbing 44.2% even as the broader market barely inched forward. The gain stands out starkly against a metro area where price growth has mostly been stuck in neutral.
The 44.2% figure, reported by azcentral.com and The Arizona Republic, marks the largest annual increase recorded in the metro area. It comes at a time when the typical Phoenix home has moved only modestly: the median sale price in Phoenix sat at $452,000 over the three months ending in September, up just 0.5% from the same stretch a year earlier, according to Redfin data on the Phoenix housing market. Those same Redfin figures show homes in the city now spend a median of 60 days on the market, down slightly from 63 days a year ago, while September sales dipped to 3,810 closings from 3,880 the year before.
A Metro Where Flat Is the Norm
Zoom out to all of 2025, and the pattern holds: median home prices across metro Phoenix were flat overall for the year. Apache Junction and central Phoenix were among the few areas to buck that trend with double-digit increases, the same azcentral.com reporting notes, while Desert Ridge in north Phoenix and north Glendale went the opposite direction, posting double-digit price drops over the same period.
Sales activity, at least, has shown more life than prices. Existing single-family home sales across metro Phoenix rose 5.1% during the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same stretch in 2025, according to Phoenix REALTORS data cited by azbigmedia.com. The year-to-date median price for a metro single-family home rose just 1% over that stretch, to $485,000, the outlet reported.
Seller’s Markets Cluster Near the Core
Where a buyer or seller has the upper hand still depends heavily on geography. The Cromford Market Index identified 13 interior metro Phoenix cities as seller’s markets, topped by Chandler, Fountain Hills and Tempe, per a report from ABC15. Another 13 cities on the outskirts of the metro remained buyer’s markets, led by Goodyear, Surprise and Queen Creek, the same index found. Cave Creek, Peoria, Laveen and Tolleson landed in between, classified as balanced markets where supply and demand are roughly equal, according to the report, which also described the spring selling season as sluggish overall despite those pockets of seller strength…