By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services/East Valley Tribune
Homeowners giddy about the current double-digit increases in values should not count on the trend continuing, a pair of economists said Thursday.
And there could even be a price bubble that could burst and actually send home prices dropping, though nowhere to the extent of what happened at the end of the last decade.
Marshall Vest of the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, said the current demand for homes is not coming from people moving here. That’s just not happening.
And he said there’s no sign that the kids who moved back in with mom and dad during the recession are in a financial position to once again form their own households — and need their own places to live — until the employment situation improves.
What is driving the market, he said, is coming from investors.
“Some real estate investment trusts have been in here buying up properties with the idea of renting those properties out,” Vest said during a meeting at the Capitol of the state’s Finance Advisory Committee. But that, he said, cannot continue forever.
If interested in discussing real estate matters, you can contact Jordan Rose, RLG founder, managing partner, jrose@roselawgroup.com
