By Brent Ruffner | YourValley
Affordable apartments aren’t being added in enough numbers to the Phoenix landscape to help fix the local housing crunch, according to an Arizona State University real estate expert.
In 2022, there were 11 designated affordable housing apartment projects under construction where 1,809 units were built, said Mark Stapp, real estate expert at the W.P. Carey School of Business.
Another 36,000 apartment units were built in the Phoenix area the same year that weren’t designated as affordable housing, he said.
Builders are opting to build more luxury, higher-rent apartments to help recoup production costs, Stapp said.
“It’s expensive to (build),” Stapp said. “Production costs the same. But you can’t collect as much in rent (by building more affordable units).”
Builders haven’t added affordable units “to any significant degree” in recent years, Stapp said.
