Phx has the same inventory problem that SD has. They’re down everywhere and prices are up. What is different here is the much higher number of homeowners still underwater and the number of all cash investor buyers. What I’m guessing will happen is that prices will continue going up through the early summer. At that point, some of those cash buyers are going to take their quick profits as well as some of those underwater homeonwers bailing as their equity rises somewhere close to zero. It won’t drive prices back down, but it will increase inventories and quell the increases.
In addition, the harsh winters in the east as well as the still depressed prices (in comparison to 5 or 6 years ago) will keep old people coming here from colder climates. (As long as they don’t hear about the snow storm we got here this week.) The growth has slowed, but it hasn’t stopped.
