Inman News has this second piece on Phoenix. "New-home construction in the Phoenix area is analogous to the pink Energizer bunny's incessant drumming. 'It never really has slowed down,' said Michael Chasse, a home builder specialist with a land brokerage company. 'Since 1992 every year has been an increase from the prior year. We have been on a constant run.'"

"Home prices in the Phoenix metro area have been marching up at the fastest pace in the country, outpacing income growth and forcing affordability issues to the forefront. And there are indications of cooling in the Arizona real estate market and in other major metro areas across the country."

"Existing-home prices were roughly flat in fourth-quarter 2005 when compared to third-quarter 2005, gaining about $400, or 0.15 percent, in that time. Single-family building permits, at about 54,000 in December 2005, dropped 5 percent in the Phoenix metro area compared to December 2004 permits, though this level of permits still ranks among the highest in the nation."

"'I really think things got overpriced for awhile, relative to the rest of the country," said Shannon Hubbard, a realtor and real estate investor in Phoenix. 'I think first-time buyers have been priced out of the market. There are not nearly as many investors as you had a year ago. Sales are down and inventories are up.'"

"Hubbard said the rental market is starting to get saturated. Builders seem more willing to offer co-broke commissions to real estate agents and offer incentives to buyers. 'Days on market is up pretty much across the whole Phoenix metro area,' she said. 'A lot of buyers were getting in with interest-only loans and adjustable-rate mortgages. It will be interesting to see how many of those go back on the market as rates go up.'"

"Single-family building permits in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe and such fast-growing suburbs as Gilbert and Surprise, reached an unprecedented 13,660 peak in third-quarter 2004 and are projected to maintain a level between 10,000 to 11,400 for the first three quarters of this year. Ten years ago, single-family building permits in the county ranged from about 5,700 to 8,200 per quarter."

"Investors seemed to enter the Arizona real estate market 'in droves' in 2003-04. By mid-2005 property listings dwindled to about 5,000 in the valley area around Phoeix,' Chasse said."

"Grady Gammage Jr., a land-use lawyer, said residents are still grappling with rising house prices in the region. Housing has historically been very affordable in Arizona, he said, but the times are changing. 'We still think of ourselves as affordable. We're all just in shock at what housing prices are right now. We've never seen that before. Our sense is that it's now stopped, housing prices have flattened and even dropped, the frenzy of speculation has stopped,' he said."

"Hubbard said she isn't rushing to sell the properties she owns now given the latest market conditions. 'My husband and I, we're holding what we have and just kind of waiting to see,' she said."