Density, traffic and stigma threaten much needed affordable housing in Phoenix area
Three workforce housing developments proposed in the West Valley could help solve the region’s growing affordable housing crisis, but a lack of political will and backlash from residents has already thwarted one development and could jeopardize the two others. Minnesota-based housing developer Dominium, which recently opened a regional headquarters in Phoenix, proposed apartment complexes in […]
This is what happens when Arizona’s development decisions ignore water reality
It’s far better to stop a water problem before it starts than to try to fix it after it appears. We’re seeing that all over the state, from the rapidly developing Rio Verde Foothills near Scottsdale to the farming community of Willcox. Those who thought they could build without water – or who had a […]
Home prices are zooming up. Is there anything that could slow the market?
Metro Phoenix home prices continue to soar to new records, and sales are climbing again. Corporate investors are buying even more Phoenix-area houses to turn into rentals than they did last year, pushing the housing market to new peaks. The median Valley home price hit an all-time high of $460,000 in March and is expected […]
What do landlords learn in a background check? More than most renters realize
Renters struggling to find a home in the tightest metro Phoenix rental market in nearly 50 years are submitting to new forms of background screening that include facial recognition, cryptic computer algorithms and monthly tracking, allowing landlords to find out much more about tenants than some may realize. Hundreds, and potentially thousands, of companies have […]
TikToker shares Arizona apartment nightmare: ‘The worst luxury apartment possible’
SKIP On April 16, a TikTok user named Jess shared the “#apartmentnightmare” they moved into in Mesa.A TikToker claims to have moved into “the worst ‘luxury’ apartment possible” in Arizona. This unit in Mesa is an “#apartmentnightmare,” according to a TikTok video posted on April 16. Over the course of 2½ minutes, user @reasonablyparanoid shows […]
Maryvale is home to rising rents — and many of Phoenix’s top evicting apartment complexes
Maryvale, one of metro Phoenix’s most affordable communities since the 1960s, is a hotspot for rising rents and evictions. Rents have more than doubled in the west Phoenix community. And six of the top 11 apartment complexes for eviction filings between 2015 and March 2020 are located there, according to an Arizona Republic analysis of […]
‘She just wanted their money’: How Arizona tenants with rental aid are getting evicted anyway
Arizona cities and counties received hundreds of millions of federal dollars to provide rental relief to struggling tenants during the pandemic. But thousands of Arizona renters were evicted – and will continue to be – because the eviction process moves faster than the government is delivering aid. Arizona law allows a landlord to initiate an […]
Arizona eviction filings are climbing to pre-pandemic levels. Is the system broken? Housing advocates are demanding change
ee en español Metro Phoenix eviction filings are climbing back to pre-pandemic levels despite hundreds of millions of dollars in rental aid going to landlords. Moratoriums helped keep many Valley renters in their homes, but those are over. Now tenants, some still trying to pay back rent after struggling during COVID-19, are also facing skyrocketing […]
‘Institutionalized racism of the past’: Discriminatory housing practices resound in south Phoenix today
ousing discrimination, including disastrous government-supported redlining, is hurting south Phoenix neighborhoods more than 50 years after it was struck down as illegal and predatory. Neighborhoods across south Phoenix still have low homeownership rates among Black and Latino people after areas south and east of downtown were redlined by the federal government in the 1930s. That […]
Build-to-rent homes are all over metro Phoenix, but is that really a good thing?
The idea of “Build to Rent” (BTR) – the concept that homes are intentionally built to be rented and never sold – is taking hold in the Valley, with more than 5,000 BTR units in the metro Phoenix area and another 6,900 under construction. Advocates say it is fulfilling a need, given the influx of […]
