a completely artificial construct based on cheap water, cheap gas and cheap mortgages. It is now disintegrating,…
That’s what happens when thousands of homes are built in the middle of nowhere with no supporting infrastructure or shopping and sold with no money down and adjustable rate mortgages.
Areas like this may never come back. Why would a vulture investor speculate on abandoned property in a place with nothing when, for a little more, they can buy in a place that has stores and jobs? Answer: they won’t, and they are the ones who will provide a bottom for real estate prices. Maybe Maricopa won’t have a bottom but instead will become a ghost town of abandoned homes. Let’s hope not, but it’s difficult to see what could turn things around for them.
I’m not so sure: there’s a booming industry in “trash” real estate, the kind no one else wants. Here’s how it works in our area: You pick up land that is virtually useless at the county tax sale for cheap. You market it on the internet to unsuspecting buyers as “near ski areas and schools.” The buyers buy it cheap– but for five to ten times what you paid for it. They either hold it for years without knowing, or they come visit, talk to a reputable realtor, and discover that without water rights (which are never included) they can’t even drill a well on the land. They stop paying the property taxes, and in a few years: viola! The land gets sold (again) at the county tax sale, probably to the same unscrupulous internet seller.
Would the same kind of people that sell land in Beryl Townsite to unsuspecting buyers over and over, pick up Maricopa homes for pennies on the dollar and sell them for a decent profit on the internet to other unsuspecting buyers? You betcha. “Great retirement home! Close to Phoenix– Amtrak– great views of the nearby mountains!” Almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?