Subject: Re: [Homestead] Land prices, a perspective
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:04:09 -0700
It is not entirely the greedy RE agents, there are the people who
think
that it is a good investment to buy desert houses at a time of
increasing
energy costs, declining water availability, and rising temperatures.
I was being facetious about the greedy Realtors. Many certainly are,
possibly even as large a percentage as, say, doctors, lawyers,
judges, politicians, entrepreneurs, managers, VPs and CEOs. Probably
not, though. The largest growing segment of the Realtor population is
women, typically wives and mothers who rightly understand that female
buyers and sellers relate well to them and they can work as many
hours as they have available after caring for their families. Mostly
they are not greedy, but just want to supplement family income.
Not just investment-minded people are buying here. The Phoenix
Metropolitan Area has been growing for many decades, the speed of
growth is accelerating, the strong growth pattern is likely to
continue for decades. Reminds me of many areas of California.
Excepting Florida, Arizona is the prime retirement destination for
Americans. New and used homes are widely available for under a
hundred thousand dollars to over ten million.
As for water, what the California canal project taught me is that
population equates to political power and big cities will always
steal more than their fair share of water. The tension between
Southern California and Arizona will grow. Arizona may well have more
underground water, but both have short access to sea water.