By Kristena Hansen | Phoenix Business Journal
Home builders did not get the year they hoped for in 2013.
That sharp increase in mortgage interest rates beginning in May, followed by the government shutdown in October, knocked the wind out of the new home market’s momentum of 2012 and early 2013. That was the general consensus of a panel discussion at Belfiore Real Estate Consulting’s fifth annual AZDealmakers event last week in Phoenix.
As a result, new-home permit numbers continued tracking downward through the end of last year. The year-end total was fewer than 12,400 permits Valleywide — a significantly smaller number than the 17,000-plus experts forecast earlier that year, according to Belfiore’s 2014 Annual Housing Report.
