"Once upon a time…"

Once upon a time (2005) in a peaceful sunny land not too far away (Arizona), Builders came and built homes.  Then the Builders got greedy.  All of them decided to increase prices. The people of Phoenix became afraid that there would be no homes left for their families, so they bought.  Would-be investors traveled to Arizona to buy rental property because they had read it would be a good thing.  The Banks saw the Builders making truck loads of gold (it was really dollars) and were jealous. So the Banks decided they wanted truck loads of gold and called their ogre friends at Wall Street (no relation to Shrek) and structured loans so that any human no matter how terrible their credit or job situation, could buy a home.  The Builders convinced families that $400,000 was a fair price for a 1400 square foot home.  The Banks sprinkled fairy dust on the Buyers so they thought they could afford $2800 per month on their new home for two years. Wall Street ogres continued to invent more magical loans so everyone could buy. The Buyers, the Builders, the Banks and Wall Street thought they were all going to live happily ever after.  And then….. the big, bad housing decline in 2006 started eroding all of the imaginary home equity. Even good people stopped making their house payments they could not afford to begin with; and really could not afford after the two years.  The Builders panicked and starting dropping prices lower and lower to get rid of their houses, but continued to build.  The Wall Street ogres fled the land and said “Oh my, our magic has run out. We are not buying these loans from the Banks anymore”.  So the angry Banks decided to punish the good people by not accepting good loans with good appraisals and making Buyers put more money down since someone has to pay and it is not going to be the Banks or the ogres at Wall Street.  The End.   Well, not quite.  On a steed of white came FHA to save the limited down home buyers and home owners who want to refinance their homes.  And those buyers that want to purchase homes above $357,000?  They are still waiting for their knight in shining armor.
 
FYI: Metropolitan Phoenix’s population increased by 132,000 people in 2007 behind Dallas and Atlanta. People are moving to Arizona!  And…..
 
According to the Phoenix Business Journal a group of local business leaders and university officials are proposing a $1.4 billion capital stimulus package to boost the construction industry by adding 32,000 jobs to benefit Arizona’s three state universities by building structures to accommodate health science and biomedical education.

posted by Katie