By Philip Haldi
man
Editor in Chief | The Dealmaker
Economist Elliott Pollack, told a crowded room of real estate industry professions Friday morning that the residential market in the Valley will still take a few years to recover.
Pollack gave a speech to more than 200 people at Pinal Partnership’s Annual Market Forecast Pre-2015, at Rawhide Western Town & Steakhouse, in Chandler.
He covered a number of real estate issues, particularly the Valley’s housing market, which continues to be sluggish in the wake of the Great Recession.
But he said it would get slightly better in 2015.
The biggest problem has been the decline of Federal Housing Association (FHA) home limits and potential home buyers’ inability to qualify for loans because of the higher FICA score requirement, he said.
“People can barely put down 3 percent for a loan. This will change, but over a period of years. The lack of home buyers will self-correct itself, but not quickly. So don’t kill yourself on the way home,” he said. “But the decline of the FHA limit won’t self-correct.”
However, he said the bright spot has been in multi-family housing, with a number apartment complexes popping up in the Valley over the last few years.
“The outlook on apartments could not be better,” Pollack said.
Pinal Partnership is a leadership organization whose mission is to improve Pinal County. Every year they hold an event focusing on the market forecast for the coming year.
Pollack is CEO of Elliott D. Pollack and Company, an economic and real estate consulting firm in Scottsdale.
