Home prices are on the rise in the Valley
According to a report from Zillow the Arizona real estate market may be on the slow road to recovery, but two experts say don’t get too excited yet.
Anthony Sanders, professor of Real Estate Finance at George Mason University, and John Wake, a Valley-based Realtor and associate broker with HomeSmart Real Estate, discuss Arizona’s previous housing bubble and current economic climate.
Wake says Arizona usually recovers from housing downturns more quickly than the rest of the country, and can expect to see fewer foreclosures from here on out. Sanders says that people who qualified for homes before won’t be able to get one in the current market; greed led to the housing bubble and lenders are more cautious now. Wake says that lenders could lower their standards and still be in the clear, but Sanders says that it’s unlikely after so many people defaulted and foreclosed.
Sanders says the government did no favors by helping to inflate the housing bubble for decades, and the government needs to stop tinkering in the housing market. Wake says the government definitely didn’t do any favors for people who could afford homes by giving loans to neighbors who couldn’t. He says that foreclosures lowered the value of homes around them and hurt entire neighborhoods. Wake says it’s only a matter of time before the cycle starts again and people gradually move from fear to greed.
