ASU expert predicts decline of cookie-cutter housing as market recovers

The cookie-cutter homes that dominated the Valley landscape for decades won’t be as common in the future as the real estate market climbs out of the recession and builds new kinds of housing. The decline of oft-ridiculed copycat construction is one of several trends predicted by the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Builders also are designing housing for specific lifestyles, while various factors are limiting the number of new homes going online. The recession brought an end to builders focusing mostly on building homes quickly to meet demand, said Mark Stapp, a real estate developer and director of ASU’s Master of Real Estate Development program. “It’s a very competitive marketplace and builders are looking at ways that they can become more distinctive,” Stapp said. “Builders have learned a lot more about targeting specific segments of the marketplace, and targeting products for them.” Homebuilders have responded to a surge of buyers in the past year, with sales up 40 percent in the Valley. Home values are up 25 percent as the glut of homes for sale is vanishing quickly. Stapp believes demand will continue to grow as people who sat out of the home market get back in.

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