By Tim Sullivan | Builder
Phoenix is rising? Maybe.
The city’s new-home market is showing signs of life, much like other cities across the United States. It’s nowhere near the frenzied market that came to symbolize the pandemic housing boom, but, if we’re hunting for green shoots, the city could be a good place to start looking.
Don’t take it from me. Take it from the almost 700 people who attended our Phoenix Frame event in late February. Hundreds of professionals gathered to share their wisdom with one another, and to figure out if we’re right to feel a bit optimistic as we head into spring.
As Jordan Rose, president of Rose Law Group, told the crowd: “If you are not optimistic, you should not be in this industry.”
And there are legitimate signs of recovery. Sales and traffic picked up to start the year, according to those in attendance, although activity is below the crazed levels of previous years. But serious, qualified buyers are back on the scene.
This echoes what we saw in Zonda’s January Housing Market Update, although our chief economist, Ali Wolf, reminded us that we’ve been jostled around by conflicting data in recent months.
“It has felt like we’ve experienced data whiplash over the past few months as new economic and housing stats have been released,” she said. “It’s hard to see the uncertainty clearing anytime soon, so we recommend going back to the basics of understanding market resilience, local supply and demand dynamics, and consumer preferences to guide future developments.”
