Phoenix-area homebuilders surviving slump

One thing can be said with certainty about the Phoenix-area homebuilders still operating in 2010: They aren't building and selling houses because it's easy. With an estimated one in 10 homes vacant, foreclosure rampant, local unemployment nearing double digits and area banks reluctant to lend, the Valley has never been more inhospitable to members of the building profession. The past three years of global financial meltdown, closely tied to reckless mortgage-lending practices, have wiped out more than half of the builders active during the Phoenix area's housing boom. Even more dramatically, the number of Phoenix-area subdivisions where new homes are being sold has shrunk to fewer than 450 today from 1,250 in 2006, a local builder analyst said.

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