New home development bills, affect on Arizona housing

From just the year 2020, Phoenix has become the fifth largest city in the U.S. This has resulted in a growing population at a rate of 11.2% from 2010. Since this time, the city has been shown to grow by almost 3%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Several proposed Arizona housing bills claim to improve housing affordability. According to some, these bills could make it worse as they lack requirements for affordable housing and give developers enormous leeway. Some of the legislation pushes to bypass city control altogether to fast-track permitting.

Additionally, the legislation pushes for reducing local zoning control and cutting out public input. The legislation would impact neighborhoods across the state including North Central Phoenix.

Mary Crozier, President of North Central Phoenix Homeowners Association, joined “Arizona Horizon” to talk about these housing bills and what they could mean.

“The two specific ones, the Arizona starter home bills, have nothing to do with creating affordability. As a matter of fact, if they get passed, it will make affordability worse, more difficult” said Crozier.

“So let’s reflect on why- why are we where we are today?” asked Crozier.

Crozier explained back during the pandemic, private equity groups and investors went on a shopping spree across the United States and purchased as many single-family homes as possible. Crozier discussed statistics and how they show one out of every four homes for sale was purchased by investors.

What that did in the hot market of Arizona, Crozier said, was drive housing prices up 54% for single-family homes. It also increased rent by over 47%.

“So Arizona was one of the most affected by those investor programs. In Maricopa County, for example, we have one investor that owns over 10,000 homes. So both of these Arizona starter home bills don’t have any provisions at all for housing affordability or starter homes,” said Crozier.