I’m old school. I love reading. I particularly enjoy reading a genuine leather bound or hard back book. I subscribe to the print edition of the Wall Street Journal. Confessedly, I also read a lot (too much?) online.
So, a few days ago I was riveted to an online article in The Times (see link below), the title of which was, “Arizona Boom Draws Californians and Changes Political Hue.” Though the gist of the article suggests that because the Arizona “Boom” is drawing blue voters from California in large numbers, the effect could swing our historically red voting state to blue. Indeed our current poli-color is more of a mixed purple.
After reading this article it stunned me that even though we’ve been regularly reporting this exodus-migration for what seems like a long time, the nation, via The Times article, now knows it. Well shoot! The cat’s out of the bag. The horses are out of the barn. The message has gone viral!
“On the surface, adding new people and new subdivisions is the same thing the Arizona economy was doing as the real estate bubble inflated. But the nature of Arizona’s growth — and the kinds of workers it has attracted — has changed.” NY Times 3-15-2020.
The article points out that between 2012 and 2018, 250,000 people per year have migrated to Arizona from other states, with California leading those numbers. Due to the large influx of Californians, the article further states that a U-Haul truck, for example, which costs only $100.00 to rent from Phoenix to Orange County, in turn costs $1000.00 to rent from there to here.
But the meat of the article well illustrates why the CA-AZ migration is happening, which is the growing diversification of the AZ economy, while maintaining its quality of life, affordable living, especially in home values. Though the construction, health and entertainment sectors have been strong, the article highlighted the growth of the finance and technology sectors.
So, in the midst of the Corona Virus pandemic, Arizona real estate, like the rest of the country, may slow for a brief moment, but as life returns to normal, the growth surge will continue, perhaps much greater than before this message went viral. At least, that’s our opinion for now.
