During the housing boom, Phoenix homeownership rate hovered around 70 percent.
In 2012, the metro Phoenix homeownership rate fell to 62.9 percent from 67.3 percent in 2009.
Catherine Reagor at The Arizona Republic reports the trend doesn’t seem to be turning around. Home buying has slowed from last year. In June, home sales were down 11 percent compared with June 2013.
The area’s median sales price has rebounded more than 65 percent since the crash to $211,000. But according to mortgage research firm HSH Associates, metro Phoenix remains the nation’s eighth-most-affordable big U.S. city to buy a home.
It calculated that buyers need to earn $42,125 a year to purchase a median-priced house in the area.
For those without $10,000 to $40,000 for a down payment, there’s no option to buy now. The risky mortgages that required little to no down payment during the housing boom are long gone. Lenders require 10 to 20 percent down now.
There are more options to rent now since investors purchased more than 150,000 Phoenix-area houses during the crash and converted them into rentals. And apartment developers are building more complexes in popular neighborhoods across the Valley.
