Obama's Phoenix Trip Highlights Housing Rebound
PHOENIX — President Barack Obama's visit to Phoenix on Tuesday shines a spotlight on one of the nation's most rapid housing recoveries, with home prices soaring and bidding wars occurring on a regular basis.
But experts say much of the rebound happened despite efforts by the federal government to prop up the market and prevent foreclosures, although federal programs are credited with slowing a free-fall and allowing more people to refinance their mortgages.
Just two years ago, the Phoenix region was in the throes of the worst housing collapse in the country, with prices down nearly 60 percent from their June 2006 peak and banks foreclosing on 70,000 homeowners a year. Investors, sensing a bargain when the median price hit $111,000, swooped in, and prices were rising by early in 2012. Regular buyers who had been sitting on the sidelines then re-entered the market, and the boom was on.
The current median price of a home in the Phoenix market is $185,000 _ up more than 60 percent from the lows. It still remains well below the $260,000 that single-family Phoenix-area homes reached at the market's height.
Obama plans to arrive in Phoenix on Tuesday to give a speech on housing and the middle class at Desert Vista High School as part of a national tour highlighting his plans for the nation's economic recovery.
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