Comments on: Should you rent or sell your Phoenix area property today?

By: Whether to Sell or Rent Your Phoenix Home | Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog

Whether to Sell or Rent Your Phoenix Home | Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:23:17 +0000

[...] November I wrote about renting or selling your Phoenix home. Since November I’ve revised my thinking enough that’s it’s well worth touching [...]

By: Steve Belt

Steve Belt — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:09:16 +0000

Steve, I don’t think you should change a thing, regarding the pictures. If I could “get away” with that, I certainly would.

More importantly, I really appreciate your comments here. As you can probably tell, I am quite bullish on Phoenix area property, because the macro economic influences are so compelling when you consider it for the long haul.

By: Steve Berg

Steve Berg — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:16:34 +0000

Sorry Steve. For some reason, when I comment on other Blogs (such as yours), you end up with a picture of my better half, Kris. So, for the record, the picture is not really me. Just a technical difficulty.

By: Steve Berg

Steve Berg — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:12:58 +0000

Steve – What a great comparative summary of two articles coming from slightly different directions. If I may, it almost sounds like Phoenix is where San Diego was in the early ’90′s as far as pricing, inventory, absorption, etc. That is to say that the SD market got ahead of itself in pricing. Then the inventory/supply of new homes got way ahead of the demand and combined with a cyclical slowdown in the business cycle. At the same time our plight was made worse by the concurrent S&L debacle and the exodus of a big chunk of our defense contractors (General Dynamics), while yours is intensified by the level of speculators and the mortgage meltdown (both, by the way, part of our current problems).

As in San Diego during that period, those who were able to hang on for the long term (10 or more years) ended up prospering big time. I believe it will be the same for our current situation both in Phoenix and in San Diego. We all just got ahead of ourselves (again), but those who can afford to hold for the long term will ultimately benefit. I appreciate how you accurately divided the pie in a way that allows people to understand the difference between investing and speculating.

The “big picture” also confirms your long term demand assertions. The southwest, in general, is a prime target location for many of the Baby Boomers who are now just starting to reach retirement age. They have the money and the means to get out of the “winter” and they will be doing so in big numbers every year for the next two decades.

By: Kelley Koehler

Kelley Koehler — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:34:46 +0000

Thanks for the cite! Oh, and Tucson is WAAAAAYY better than Phoenix. But getting that wrong is something a sun devil education will get you.

(ducking out)