TUCSON, ARIZ. (KGUN) — New data shows the housing market in Tucson has significantly slowed with housing inventory up around 50%, according to the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo.
While Tucson has traditionally offered more affordable housing, new data shows it's shifting.
"While it's, you know, slowing in the housing market, is probably good news at this point," George Hammond said. "We need, you know, house prices to at least slow down. So that income can catch up, you know having housing affordability dropped so much in such a short period of time isn't good for you know overall economic growth."
George Hammond, Economic and Business Research Center Director at the University of Arizona Eller College of Management says the housing market in Tucson is showing signs of slowing.
In Tucson, the median house price for June was $370,000. In Phoenix housing is much higher, although the Valley did see prices drop in recent months.
"We, in June, we did see the median home price in Phoenix declined by about $10,000 from $510,000 to $500,000," Hammond said. "You know, we may see something along those lines happen in Tucson, but you know, I don't think we're headed for the kinds of long run where at least long term house price declines that we experienced during the kind of 2007-2009 period."
Housing affordability in Tucson is also taking a dive, about 30 percentage pointsfrom before the pandemic began. That is now a little below the national average at 41% of homes sold in Tucson being affordable for a family making the median income of $81,000, according to HUD.
So what's on the horizon for housing prices?
"Arizona is certainly not in a recession at the moment but you know, we are battling some some cross currents or headwinds, you know, pick your analogy," Hammond said. "We're dealing with, you know, higher than national average inflation and, you know, lower housing affordability but we're still seeing strong job growth. And record low unemployment rates."
——-
Denelle Veselik is an anchor and investigative reporter for KGUN 9. It's been her dream to tell your stories for the past decade. She is extremely curious and wants to continue to use her storytelling for the greater good. Share your story ideas and important issues with Denelle by emailing denelle.veselik@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram and X/Twitter.
