Phoenix loses home-building title but performs well
by Catherine Reagor is senior real estate reporter. Contact her at catherine.reagor@arizonarepublic.com or (602)444-8040.
Apr. 9, 2006 12:00 AM

Metropolitan Phoenix has lost its title as the top home-building market in the country.

Actually the Valley has slipped to No. 4, according to a new report from real estate analysis firm Sullivan Group.

It's not a big surprise that metro Phoenix no longer leads the nation because the housing market started slowing during the last few months of 2005. But last year was still a record for every part of the Valley's housing market. advertisement




Atlanta regained the top spot for home building with 72,356 permits issued from January 2005 to January 2006. The big surprise was the No. 2 spot, which was claimed by the northern New Jersey/Long Island area with 64,726 permits. Houston was third with 61,475.

Phoenix's tally of home-building permits for the period tracked was 60,936. Metro Dallas was No. 5 with 59,320.

Metro Phoenix led the nation for home building for the first time ever in 2004.

Atlanta, Houston and Dallas likely got a boost in building permits last year from people displaced by hurricanes.

The Valley may have slipped in home building, but it topped two other lists. And those lists are a little more prestigious.

Metro Phoenix led the nation in home-price appreciation at 40 percent from January to January. And the Valley added the most new jobs, 112,000, during the 12 months ending Jan. 31. Both are good signs for the housing market's performance.

San Diego-based Sullivan Group is a relatively new real estate consulting firm. It was formed in 2005. But its principal, Tim Sullivan, is no newcomer to the Valley's housing market. He headed up Los Angeles-based Meyers Group until a few years ago. And that firm also tracked metro Phoenix's market.

Sullivan used all the right sources for its rankings: the Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight and Bureau of Labor Statistics.


No new record


Toll Brothers bought another piece of state land in Desert Ridge last week.

The land sold for the opening bid of $19.7 million on Thursday. That's the appraised value of the 81-acre site. The price breaks down to about $243,000 an acre.

It has been rare for a piece of state land, particularly in north Phoenix's Desert Ridge development, not to spark a bidding war in the past two years.

In late January, apartment builder Gray Development paid $33.45 million, or more than a $1 million an acre, for a 32-acre site in Desert Ridge. Toll has been the winning bidder on a couple of parcels in Desert Ridge.

Toll's most recent purchase is a little more challenging to develop, which might be why the price didn't get pushed up. It wraps around some other projects and has several washes running through it.

The Land Department plans to sell three more parcels in Desert Ridge this year. The results of those auctions could tell which way the market is headed.