HOME PRICE STABILITY IN ARIZONA?

posted by Michael Chihak

Some housing experts and economists say Arizona's housing market won't be back to normal for another four to five years, perhaps even longer depending on what happens with other parts of the economy.

Before normalcy, the slow-growing state must absorb nearly 100,000 houses that shouldn't be on the market now but are up for sale. That's because they were foreclosed on, their mortgages in default from owners who lost their jobs, were in over their heads or otherwise suffered the unforgiving pummeling of the financial meltdown.

If the market weren't glutted with those foreclosure sales, would it be operating at a decent pace?

That's a question we will ask Arizona Real Estate Commissioner Judy Lowe for this Friday's Arizona Week.

We also will ask her if trends she is seeing in real estate broker and agent licensing and other statistics portend any positive trends in the market, how the real estate industry may have been permanently altered by the housing bust and if she is noticing signs of stability in pricing and other aspects of the real estate market.