If you’re in the market for a home, you might’ve noticed Phoenix has entered a booming seller’s market. But, if you’re in the market for a million-dollar home, that market is less red-hot than the one for entry-level homes, priced up to $250,000.
So, what’s going on? And, as every Phoenician fears, does this mean a bubble is growing at the lower of end of our residential real-estate market?
To help answer that, I spoke with Ryan Brault, who is the regional director for Metrostudy. Basically, he’s a market data cruncher.
He said we’ve seen a double-digit appreciation in the home resale market — as in, not brand-new builds — since the bottom fell out of the market , and this past year 16,000 single-family homes and townhomes were built, but even that hasn’t been enough to satisfy demand.
I asked him to lay this out for us: why are entry-level houses so hard to get right now?
Michael Underhill is a professor of architecture at ASU and an expert in urban design issues. And he says even though there might be a shortage of this affordable housing, it’s really a really critical component to a thriving city. He’s worried that the tax credits and equity homeownership gives are being missed out by the entry-level set.
