Housing prices in the Phoenix metro area continue to plummet and the rate of decline has accelerated, according to Karl L. Guntermann, a professor of real estate and finance at the W. P. Carey School of Business. But in contrast to areas of the desert city that are experiencing deterioration, certain parts are holding their own.
The most popular indices currently in use today, such as those developed by the National Association of Realtors, measure the median home prices nationally and in a given region. But is median price the best way to measure the trend in home prices? W. P. Carey real estate professor Karl Guntermann and research associate Alex Horenstein have developed a new index for Arizona — this one based on repeat sales.
Phoenix, now the fifth largest city in the United States, could be the poster child for metropolitan areas where a bursting residential housing bubble has created economic discord. After parsing data from both the commercial and residential sectors, however, the Phoenix real estate market appears much stronger than the national press paints it, according to Larry Seay, chief financial officer of Phoenix-based Meritage Corp., and Crocker Liu, McCord Chair in Real Estate at the W. P. Carey School of Business. Seay and Liu spoke at an April 5 seminar in Phoenix entitled "Frontiers in Real Estate: Hedging Your Bets," presented by the W. P. Carey School’s Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice.
