Is it a good time to take homeownership leap of faith in Arizona?

This is the third installment in a three-part Highlight on Housing series. Read part one here and part two here.

Tune in to 92.3 FM, our app or online from noon to 2 p.m. Wednesday for a special show on Arizona housing with segments featuring Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and industry experts.

PHOENIX — Many Arizonans put the American dream of homeownership on hold as prices and mortgage rates skyrocketed in recent years.

Is now a good time to buy a home? Experts say anyone thinking about taking the plunge needs to take multiple factors into consideration.

The median sale price of a single-family home in Arizona has gone up more than 50% in the last five years, jumping from $302,000 to more than $470,000 from February 2020 to February 2025, according to real estate company Redfin.

Meanwhile, the average rate for a conventional 30-year mortgage has increased from 4.25% to 6.6% over the last half decade.

Homeownership decision is about more than price, interest rate

While prices and interest rates alone might make Arizonans think twice about jumping into homeownership, those on-the-surface costs are just a small piece of the puzzle.

“One of the things that has to be considered, too, is not just the cost of the mortgage, but also the continuing maintenance and expenses that a house would have that you wouldn’t normally have in a rental,” said Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence with real estate data company Yardi Matrix.

When factoring in the cost of insurance and continuing maintenance that renters don’t have to pay, Ressler said the national average is about $1,000 cheaper a month to rent than to buy.

While Arizona’s homeownership rate has remained fairly consistent in recent years, hovering around 67.5%, according to PropertyShark, Ressler believes the percentage of renters could increase soon.

He said more Gen Zers are starting to rent, millennials are choosing to rent for longer periods of time, and older populations locked into lower interest rates are choosing to hold onto their homes.

What other questions should Arizonans ask about homeownership

So, how do you know when it’s the right time to take the plunge and buy a home?

Mike Weinstein, real estate wealth manager and real estate agent for the Real Estate 401k group at West USA Realty, said you should start by examining not only your job security and finances, but why you want to own a home.

“Our angle is helping people build wealth in real estate, so if we’re working with a first-time homebuyer, we’re not actually buying a home, we’re buying a house,” he said, explaining that the simple reframe allows people to remove emotion from the process.

Weinstein said if you can afford to buy a home, now may be a great time despite high interest rates.

“So many people are caught up on interest rates … but the higher interest rates are keeping a lot of buyers out of the market, making the sellers a little more desperate to sell, so now we’re getting better deals,” he said.

In addition, high interest rates can be mitigated initially through buying points or later through refinancing if rates drop, Weinstein said.

Help is available for some potential Phoenix homeowners

However, affordability remains a problem for many Arizonans, although some local governments are trying to help.

“As home prices are increasing, that does make it more difficult for those households at the lower income levels to find something they can afford,” said Samantha Keating, city of Phoenix deputy housing director. “That’s why we as a city are trying to look into different programs that can assist.”

The Phoenix programs include down payment and closing cost assistance and discounts off home appraisals for buyers who meet certain income requirements.

The city also has a relatively new community land trust program through a partnership with local community development corporation Newtown CDC.

“They use that grant funding to purchase properties, rehabilitate those properties, and then they sell the home — but retain the land — to income-qualified buyers so that the home purchase is lower and more affordable,” Keating said.

If time is right, prepare for a complex process

Regardless of how you end up buying a home, Weinstein stressed the importance of buyers not biting off more than they can chew.

“They think that they’re going to be able to do this on their own and they don’t understand the entire process,” he said.

Weinstein said people tend to underestimate how much goes into buying a home, from getting prequalified to writing contracts to negotiating the best deal possible.

“Then you’ve got to get inspections, and then what happens if there’s something wrong with the roof or something wrong with the foundation? … And then you’ve got to get to remembering just to get the utilities turned on,” he said.

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