Phoenix housing starts increasing

New research from Metrostudy shows housing starts in the Phoenix area have grown through the first three quarters of 2009, but still lag last year’s pace. Reduced inventories of new and existing homes, low interest rates and the boost provided by the $8,000 housing tax credit have encouraged new-home construction in the Phoenix area, said Ben Sage, director of Metrostudy’s Arizona division. Metrostudy is a national housing data and consulting firm based in Houston. It conducts a count of all new housing units in subdivisions within its market areas each quarter. According to Metrostudy’s third-quarter survey of the Phoenix market, the number of starts of attached and detached homes during the 12 months ended Sept. 30 was 7,789. That’s a 55 percent decline from the year-earlier period. Builders closed 14,205 homes during the 12 months ended Sept. 30, a 51 percent decline. Although new-home starts in the third quarter of 2009 were slow compared to the previous third quarter (down 29 percent), starts have increased each quarter this year.

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