Home prices in Maricopa County rising faster than wages, expert says
Jun 21, 2018, 4:45 AM | Updated: Jun 22, 2018, 9:40 am
(AP Photo/Steven Senne)
(AP Photo/Steven Senne)
PHOENIX — It is becoming more and more expensive to purchase a home in Maricopa County — and one expert expects the crisis to continue.
Daren Blomquist with the California-based Attom Data Solutions told KTAR News 92.3 FM that the average price of a home in Maricopa County has risen eight percent in the last year.
While that may not seem like a lot, Blomquist added that the average weekly wages for a worker in the county has only risen three percent in that same time period.
Blomquist said that prospective homeowners had to spend about 35 percent of their weekly wages in order to buy a home in Maricopa County last year. But this year that number has grown to 37 percent.
“The affordability is worse than it has been, historically, in the Maricopa County market,” he said.
“It’s the lowest affordability index since 2008. We’re getting back into the same territory when the housing crash took place.”
And that’s not all: Blomquist said he expects the average home prices in the county to continue to rise, due to high demand and rising interest rates.
This comes shortly after a report from SmartAsset found that it takes more than four years for a potential home buyer to earn enough money to make a down payment on a home in Phoenix.
With a median household income of $52,062 in Phoenix, it would take 4.10 years to afford a down payment on a home with the median value of $213,300.
Moving out of the city did not get much easier: The report also found that it would take about 3.99 years to afford a down payment on a Mesa home, which has a median value of $209,600.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jeremy Foster contributed to this report.
