Real estate prices in certain cities went through the roof in the wake of the pandemic. But now some of these pandemic boomtowns are seeing home prices fall: Phoenix is one.
The median home price in the Phoenix metropolitan area was $537,900 in August, according to the report from Realtor.com — down 1.2% from the same month in 2022. It’s one of 10 areas where home prices are falling the most, the report said.
Although the decline was modest from 2022, it’s a concerning echo from the Phoenix market’s real-estate crash in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Some people are bracing for sharper drops.
But for now, it’s also a good opportunity for people looking to move to potentially scoop up a home as prices fall. Yes, Phoenix is hot, concerns about wildfires and droughts aren’t stopping Americans from moving into the Sunbelt.
We combed through real estate listings to find five of the lowest-priced homes right now in the Phoenix area. We screened out raw land, mobile homes, and houses that were massive fixer-uppers. Here’s an idea of what you can get in the Phoenix area as of October.
Starting the list is this smaller home, which is well under the area’s median home price.
According to Realtor.com, this house was a flipped property. It was originally back in 1946 before its recent update, according to Realtor.com. It’s about 3.5 miles from downtown Phoenix.
The Realtor.com description of this home describes it as a “charming flip home nestled in the heart of Phoenix.”
This home comes with a decent-looking kitchen, but you might end up not using it very much. The area has a noted dining scene — and here’s some of the best places to eat in Phoenix, according to a local.
The Phoenix metro area’s unemployment rate was 4% in August, according to federal statistics. That’s slightly higher than the nation’s unemployment rate of 3.8% for August.
It’s the US’s fifth-largest city, recently eclipsing Philadelphia, with more than 1.6 million residents in the city itself and nearly 5 million people in the metropolitan area.
Mayor Kate Gallego says Phoenix is ready to prove itself as one of the world’s great global cities — especially with its continued push into semiconductor manufacturing.
The suburb of Glendale is just outside of Phoenix. You might recognize it as home of the 2023 Super Bowl.
In its roads of strip malls and tidy homes is this three-bedroom, two-bath home for well below the area’s median home price.
Contemporary homes are very popular in Arizona these days, but 4942 W. Ocotillo Road is charming and has a vintage feel.
“The ceiling in the living room has a design on it that’s really creative,” the house’s broker, Deanette “Dee” Bloom said. “It’s workmanship that they just don’t do anymore.”
One person moved from Long Island, New York, to Glendale in 2022. He told Insider he bought a home for $204,000 — something he wouldn’t have been able to do back on the East Coast.
Glendale may seem like just another satellite city to Phoenix, but the State Farm Stadium had the city making headlines. The stadium not only hosted the 2023 Super Bowl —it also was the first stop for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
Glendale rebranded itself to “Swift City” in March 2023, in honor of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour stop.
This house comes with its own vintage telephone box, according to Realtor.com.
There are plenty of nice hotels in Glendale, great for Super Bowl season, or if you have friends or family in town.
It’s uncommon to find a home in the Phoenix area with a basement. That’s because some of the dirt in the state has a compound called caliche, which is made of calcium carbonate, according to ABC 15. Caliche is very hard, like concrete, so it makes digging very difficult, labor-intensive, and expensive.
The Phoenix area has 10 companies on the Fortune 500 list of the US’s biggest companies.
They include, with a top showing at No. 163, Avnet, which is an electronic components company.
Other Fortune 500 companies in the Phoenix area include:
Still, it wouldn’t be a story about Phoenix without mentioning its extreme heat: Phoenix’s heat is something to be mindful of for anyone considering a move to the area.
Half of the Phoenix population would need to be hospitalized if the city suffered from a blackout, according to a recent study. That’s 800,000 people. And the study estimated 3,000 people would die from heat-related health complications.
Chandler is about 25 miles east of Phoenix. The east side of the Phoenix metro area is home to popular municipalities like Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Temp — home of Arizona State University — and Scottsdale.
Intel has a major presence in the Chandler area, where it has “fabs” or factories to build its chips.
One woman in the area took a 10-day crash course on how to be a semiconductor processing technician, Insider reported in August.
Arizona is considered the hub of semiconductor manufacturing in the US, meaning there are good-paying jobs to be found in the Phoenix area in the tech field.
Though Arizona is a popular state for millennials, it’s also possible for older adults to thrive in the state; 18.3% of the state’s population is above the age of 65.
Driving is the most popular way to get around Phoenix, and the area’s sprawling roads and freeways certainly prove that point.
But Phoenix has a growing number of options for public transportation through its Valley Metro.
Gallego, Phoenix’s mayor, is looking to strengthen the city’s public transport, with a 35-year plan to expand it.
A so-called anti-lawn movement in Phoenix is challenging homeowners to change their grass lawns to things more desert-friendly, like rocks and desert plants.
And because of the state’s lack of groundwater, Arizona’s governor unveiled a plan earlier this year to limit development in the Phoenix area.
Regulators are expected to no longer approve new developments that rely solely on groundwater.
“We have to close this gap and find efficiencies for our water use, manage our aquifers wisely and increase our utilization of renewable supplies,” Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said in July.
One of the only downsides about living in Phoenix is that it might skew your perception of hot and cold.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in Phoenix rarely dip below the upper 50s between the months of April and October.
It’s also a great city for those looking to work on their tan, as it’s sunny on 85% of the days of the year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This home looks like a fixer-upper from the outside, and at just above $200,000, it’s way below the area’s median home price. But it does apparently need some work. That’s why it will be a hot target for home flippers or other investors.
“Properties like this, especially in the Phoenix market, are harder to find,” the property’s broker, Nicholas Caro, told Insider. “There’s lot less of them because, typically, when a house like that goes onto the market — you know — they’re snatched up pretty quick by investors.”
Caro says this home is ideal for a “lower qualified buyer.” For Caro, it’s important that this house goes to someone who actually needs it, rather than just selling it to an investor.
“I would love to honestly get this house sold to someone who is a first-time homebuyer, rather than an investor,” Caro said. “I’ve got a lot of investor offers and most of them are, you know, they’re gonna make a ton of profit.”
With interest rates going up nationally, first-time homebuyers need to make at least $64,500 a year generally, Redfin said in a report earlier this summer. (That’s not speaking specifically of this home.)
Caro calls the property a “good little starter home,” with lots of potential for personalization. It’s not too far from downtown Buckeye.
The median price nationally for starter homes in August was an at all-time high of $243,000.
“The most affordable homes for sale are no longer affordable to people with lower budgets due to the combination of rising prices and rising rates,” Sheharyar Bokhari, a senior economist at Redfin, said in a statement. “That’s locking many Americans out of the housing market altogether, preventing them from building equity and ultimately building lasting wealth.”
This home could help buck that trend.
Phoenix and Las Vegas are two of the most popular cities for homebuyers, according to a Redfin report this summer.
Even climate risks aren’t stopping homebuyers from looking at homes in these cities with high average temperatures, a Redfin economist said.
Why? “That’s because even though Sun Belt home prices soared during the pandemic, those metros remain a bargain for people relocating from expensive coastal cities,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said at the time.
Pandemic-era boomtowns do indeed face some possible issues when it comes to climate change.
But that’s not stopping people from moving to Phoenix in droves.
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