John Jackson has been labeled both a snitch and a hero in home-construction circles.
The 51-year-old tile craftsman from Casa Grande began a crusade two years ago to expose unlicensed construction after Jackson says it became impossible for him to secure flooring contracts on new-home sites. He said the going rate for tile work dropped to unrealistic levels because subcontractors were willing to take legal shortcuts to complete the work.
For full article and video see: http://www.azcentral.com/business/realestate/articles/20130927unlicensed-contractors-activist.html
The design choices of 2013 will be shaped by uncertainty over how long current home owners will stay and what future buyers’ tastes may be. So, home owners’ needs and style preferences are more influential in today’s designs than what buyers want.
Phoenix is the nation’s fifth largest city and only continues to grow. As a result, there is an abundance of new homes for sale in the Phoenix area to accommodate the influx of people. The growth makes sense, as few other cities have such a wide range of attractions and opportunities. The city is a prime destination for new home buyers enticed by its diverse, expanding population and affordable mortgages.
With big price gains, waning investor interest, and plunging foreclosure activity, the metro Phoenix housing market was looking more “normal” this summer than it’s been for several years, according to a new report by Arizona State University. Even the number of buyers and sellers has finally begun showing some signs of balance after two years of a chronic shortage of homes for sale. But there is still much room for improvement, particularly in the new-home market where sales rates are still less than one third of what’s necessary to keep pace with the Valley’s current population growth
Tops on the Landscape Architects list for the past nine years, Logan Simpson Design inc. was again No. 1 when The Phoenix Business Journal published the list today.
Phoenix seems to have finally recovered from the terrible market it was previously in, but are we just preparing ourselves for another housing bubble? Sources say no, as of now there are many more buyers searching for houses than there are houses available. There is a multitude of reasons why we have bounced back, such as; Lower interest rates, and people returning and wanting to live in the beautiful environment. Most importantly being the decrease from 56,000 homes on the market in 2008 to only 16,000 in the year of 2013.
