By Fernanda Santos | The New York Times
PHOENIX — Here, where the housing market endured one of the hardest crashes anywhere during the recession, the rebound has come faster than in most parts of the country, fueled by a vigorous job market, a sturdy rise in home values and an all-around sense that the worst of times is in the distant past.
“It’s hard to find a lot of fault with the recovery in Phoenix,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, a California company that tracks housing sales, reciting a list of positive indicators, like the area’s shrinking inventory of foreclosures, its healthy population growth and the steady decline in the number of homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than their property is worth.
But those changes have brought a whole new set of challenges.
Developers, discouraged by the high price of land and a shortage of construction workers, who left for greener pastures during the crash, are reluctant to build starter homes, the type most in demand. Prospective sellers are waiting to see if surging values will keep on climbing before they list their properties. Meantime, prospective buyers, including many newcomers drawn by new jobs in the state, are having a hard time finding a place to live.
