By Catherine Reagor, The Republic | azcentral.com
Metro Phoenix’s housing market ended 2014 on a low note with both home sales and prices down. Homeowners, potential buyers shopping for a house and investors are all curious — even anxious — about what could happen this year.
The big issues to watch in the Valley are job and population growth, whether the federal plan to lower mortgage premiums spurs more first-time buyers and what big investors with thousands of rental houses do.
Nationally, whether interest rates climb, the success of new low-down payment loan programs started by federal Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and any national finance reform for the mortgage market are keys to pay attention to.
None of the real estate experts I polled are are overly optimistic, but all agree 2015 should be better for Phoenix’s housing market than last year.
