The Arizona Republic - April 2007
As many homeowners are lamenting flat or falling home prices, Phoenix-area apartment renters are watching monthly rents rise.
The rent for the average Valley apartment recently topped $800 for the first time. A first-quarter report just released from RealFacts put the monthly payment on a typical apartment at $805. The real estate data firm reports Valley rents climbed 4.4 percent during the past year.
But renters might get some relief this year. More apartments are going up, as many as 3,500, according to apartment brokerage firm Hendricks & Partners. Also, some of the many condominium conversion projects planned in 2005 and 2006 have failed and likely will go back to apartment rentals. It's all about supply and demand.
Despite rents topping $800, the Valley is still an affordable apartment market compared with other parts of the West. Like metropolitan Phoenix home prices, apartment rents are about half what they are in Los Angeles, San Jose and San Diego.
Metro Phoenix rents are also more affordable than Flagstaff's. The average apartment in the northern Arizona city is leasing for $816 a month. Tucson seems cheap at $655.
Next big land auction
Last week's record $149.4 million sale for a prime piece of state land in Phoenix's Desert Ridge area could be dwarfed this week.
A 124-acre parcel at Pima Road and the Loop 101 goes on the auction block Tuesday morning.
But don't look for a bidding war among home builders, although it's a prime spot. The property is zoned for commercial development. The State Land Department leases commercial land instead of selling it. The annual rent on this site: $1.37 million.
Developers want long-term leases if they must lease land, and the rents on this parcel eventually could add up to $850 million. That's would make it the biggest commercial lease for the Land Department. First Industrial is the only registered bidder so far.
The site will likely sprout a business park, with more jobs for the many new rooftops in north Scottsdale.
Yavapai growth group
The Prescott area is growing and metro Phoenix is growing toward it. To try to stay in front of that growth, the Central Arizona Partnership has been formed.
It's modeled after metro Phoenix's real estate lobbying, planning and policy group Valley Partnership. To get the new growth group started, Maria Baier, former chief executive of Valley Partnership, will run the Central Arizona Partnership pro bono.
But Central Arizona Partnership could soon have to find a new executive director. Baier, who resigned from Valley Partnership last summer, recently announced her candidacy for the 3rd District seat on Phoenix's City Council.
