Building A Crisis ‘Slowly’
The Arizona Republic reports on the demands of the housing bubble. “Earl Kemp watches daily as earth-moving equipment rumbles past his home in rural Golden Valley, near Kingman, pushing aside dirt and desert scrub as a Las Vegas developer prepares to build the first of more than 130,000 homes.”
“The developer, Jim Rhodes, couldn’t promise..that he could provide enough water for all the people, a failing Kemp thought would doom the project. ”There’s no water out here to begin with,’ said Kemp, who pays to have water hauled in. But water worries haven’t derailed the project. The Mohave County Board of Supervisors approved all but one of Rhodes’ subdivisions in early December, and the fifth was hung up on land issues, not water.”
“The Arizona Department of Water Resources has yet to finish its assessment of whether the area has adequate water to sustain nearly 400,000 people. Even if the state finds the water supply inadequate, that’s what appears likely unless the builder’s engineers can shore up their studies, Rhodes can keep building.”
“While developers must prove they have a 100-year assured water supply in Phoenix, Tucson and Prescott, they face no such regulation in rural Arizona and, under the law, can build even if the state rules their supply is inadequate. Many officials worry about losing revenue if growth slows.”
“Building a crisis slowly is not a word Denise Bensusan would use to describe the arrival of big-city developers in Kingman. In the space of a year, maybe two, builders have proposed more than 160,000 single-family homes, apartments and condominiums, more housing units than currently exist in all of Mohave County. ‘We are in a crisis,’ said Bensusan. ‘Our entities are not listening to us. The way these plans were rushed through, it was a joke.’”
“Mohave County officials don’t deny that they are missing some information about water supplies, but they insist they are only following the law. They angered opponents of the subdivisions when they said state law prevented them from rejecting proposals solely because the builders couldn’t guarantee water supplies. ‘I’m all for private property rights, definitely,’ Bensusan said. ‘But when our small group was invited to participate in the Long Mountain area plan, we were called anti-growth and all we were doing is talking about how much water do we have, how much density can we handle here, what about the infrastructure, the roads.’”
“The Water Resources Department will issue a determination of ‘adequate’ or ‘inadequate’ to meet residents’ needs for 100 years. The actual result isn’t binding, but the builders have to disclose the finding to the first buyers of the subdivision parcels. So far, no lawmaker has proposed changing that law. ‘This is a very serious issue,” said Lela Prashad, an advocate for Arizona Public Interest Research Group. ‘In 80 percent of the state, there are no protections so that when people buy a home with an inadequate water supply, they know it.’”
“Rhodes and other developers say that’s not their aim. They promise high-quality communities that will improve their surroundings without taxing resources. State officials say they rely on the developer to submit the best information possible. That’s especially critical in Mohave County, where little is known about the aquifers beneath the undeveloped areas. Some studies suggest ample water, but there’s been no real confirmation. If the state had to issue a report now, Tom Whitmer said, it would conclude that there is inadequate water to sustain the homes.”
” Bill Abbott hasn’t conducted any engineering studies, but he can offer firsthand evidence that it isn’t easy to maintain water in the arid valleys outside Kingman. He and his wife kept a few horses on their small spread and lived for years off two wells. Then the wells started to slow and before long, they’d nearly gone dry. He worries now about selling so many new homes without assurances that the water will hold out. ‘When I see my wells going dry, when I see my horse trough going dry, I don’t go out and buy more horses,’ he said.”
“It’s no secret that Rhodes intends to market at least some of the houses to Las Vegas-area workers, creating a far-flung bedroom community for people who want affordable homes and don’t mind a drive of an hour or more. The completion in 2008 of a bridge designed to bypass Hoover Dam will make such commutes possible and could leave Mohave County with tens of thousands of residents who work in Nevada but live in Arizona.”
Thanks to the reader who sent this in.
Mark Twain’s wry comment that “whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over” was never truer.
People around the country will read this and say “Gee, look at that crazy developer in Arizona building houses where there’s no adequate water supply.” But the mentality of this developer building homes without water is no different than the mentality of a home-buyer buying a home with no money (i.e. looney mortgages). Both think it doesn’t matter because prices will keep going up.
this is going to be a disaster, and those buyers are *never* going to be able to unload those houses at any price. Their only recourse will be to sue - and good luck with that.
The Great American Desert will revert to desert taking PHX, Tucson and CA’s desert cities.
Mother Nature bats last…
testing
People commute from Kingman to Las Vegas? This is insane. I’ve driven that a few times, and even with the new bridge at the Hoover Dam this won’t be a tolerable commute.
Why Kingman when there are hundreds of thousands of vacant acres between Kingman and Las Vegas? It’s all the same, desert. And it’s UGLY desert, not sorta-pretty desert like you see in southern Arizona.
All the BLM has to do is unlike the vast tracts they own around LV and the “they aren’t making more land” argument goes POOF.
I meant “unlock”, not “unlike”. I guess I’ll have to get used to Ben’s new blog where I can’t delete a mistake and start over.
Lou,
We’ll add some of those functions via plugin soon. WP has a lot to offer.
Actually, I’ve even heard of one that allows the author to edit.
One reads the book “Collapse” and says, “Those are old civilizations and third world countries. They were doomed by ignorance and poverty.” And then a post like this comes up. Amazing.
Lou,
You’re right about that ugly desert…it’s also known for all the meth labs and white supremancy groups….I can’t think of an less attractive area in the state!
This is insanity.
The state of AZ is having a real water crisis…the coming wildfire season is predicted to be the worse…ever.
SRP is ready to lower the boom on anyone sucking the juice out the Verde watershed, which will leave other boom towns, like Prescott, very thirsty.
Kingman? Completely insane.
I make the drive quite often between Prescott and California. I try and stop in golden valley visit with an old man who lost his wife and can barely get around himself. When I turn off the highway on his street. His neighbor along the highway frontage is always selling some type of newly painted trailer with a 500 gallon poly tank strapped to it. Almost every time I go by, there are different trailers sitting on his lot. I know they are different because he uses old boat trailers, sea-doo trailers or anything with wheels. Single axle or dual axle don’t matter as they all get the same plastic tank mounted on it with the shiny new paint.
Except for a few improved areas, most development west of Estrella road has to carry water.
I guess retiring baby boomers and wealthy South Americans won’t mind the 800 lb tongue weight and the constant sloshing from un-baffled tanks. Because everyone wants to live in this dust bowl?
I know!!! the taxpayers can pick up the tab when the buyers can use or sell the homes….(see katrina for further
details)
Sorry!!! I meant can’t use or sell their homes!! next time I’ll pay attention to what I wrote.
commute 1 hr to vegas in the summer? that means driving in 120 degree weather. i don’t recommend this unless you have a new reliable car.
what a horrible life.
It might more make sense to get a desert land cheap like this one, so you can hide from the zombies. If there is no water to your home, a trailer is better investment than a home.
Simply irresponsible.
These people are smoking crack. 130,000 homes in Kingman?
I just hope they don’t demolish the Timothy McVeigh Memorial Trailer Park…
I am renting in Kierland and the house next to me just listed. I called to get the price and the realtor said she didn’t know yet. She was waiting for the “buyers” appraisal. I ask, “oh, is someone buying it already?” She answers no and then proceeds to tell me there are different kinds of appraisals– sellers, buyers, refinances, etc. and that she wants this priced right. I say so the appraisers are coming back down to earth and she says they have to because the banks are pressuring them to do so. She then tells me the last 2 houses she thought she had sold the appraisal came in lower than the agreed sales price.
I think I’ll extend my lease.
Lou Minatti Says:
February 5th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
People commute from Kingman to Las Vegas? This is insane. I’ve driven that a few times, and even with the new bridge at the Hoover Dam this won’t be a tolerable commute.
Why Kingman when there are hundreds of thousands of vacant acres between Kingman and Las Vegas? It’s all the same, desert. And it’s UGLY desert, not sorta-pretty desert like you see in southern Arizona.
All the BLM has to do is unlike the vast tracts they own around LV and the “they aren’t making more land” argument goes POOF.
Agreed. The run up in land prices in Las Vegas are IMHO, largely artificial. Anyone can look out there window here and see hundreds of miles of empty desert.
I’ve driven to Kingman a couple times on my way to various cities in Arizona for vacations. No way could this place ever become a commuter town for Las Vegas. The drive is too far (we clocked a minimum of 90 minute drive if we were doing the speed limit) and the road itself is not large enough to support mass commuter traffic to Vegas. Plus the weather during half the year in this area is unbearably hot…you’d better have a car in good shape with air conditioning. Plus no water for the homes…it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that turning this place into a “commuter town” is a very bad idea.
(forgot to add this, since I can’t edit)
“It’s no secret that Rhodes intends to market at least some of the houses to Las Vegas-area workers, creating a far-flung bedroom community for people who want affordable homes and don’t mind a drive of an hour or more. The completion in 2008 of a bridge designed to bypass Hoover Dam will make such commutes possible and could leave Mohave County with tens of thousands of residents who work in Nevada but live in Arizona.”
Here is another thing to consider: as a small business owner I would NEVER chose living in Arizona over Nevada. The tax advantages to living in Nevada are too great vs. Arizona for your average business. Even a regular employee stands to lose taxwise by moving to Arizona (AZ has state income tax, NV doesn’t).
Believe me, me and my husband have thought about relocating our home and business to Arizona and have been to all these areas where these new prospective commuter communities are to be built. But our taxes would double as soon as we moved across the state’s border, for what? A longer commute and similar desert environment, and definately less support services than say Vegas, Henderson, and Boulder City have.
Plus there is the gas issue that comes with driving. How much would one spend on gas commuting with today’s increasing gas prices??? (Next time I go to AZ, I’m going to calculate how much gas it took us to get from Vegas to Kingman just to get some kind of idea. )
spacepest,
That’s a good point. Most people don’t know that Arizona is a high tax state. There is a state income tax. Sales tax right at 10%. They even tax a car based on how much it’s worth; up to $500/yr.
Two Talent Living » A little bit of this and a little bit of that! Says:
February 6th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
[…] Unless something dramatic happens, I agree with folks who predict that WATER is going to become a commodity that folks will go to war over in the decades ahead… […]
Now, I am not a financial genius or investor by any means. But lately everyone is saying “gold” as the next big thing to invest in. Has anyone ever thought about the future monetary value of WATER? Now that might be something to invest in…that and desalinization plants. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
Ben Jones Says:
February 6th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
spacepest,
That’s a good point. Most people don’t know that Arizona is a high tax state. There is a state income tax. Sales tax right at 10%. They even tax a car based on how much it’s worth; up to $500/yr.
Yeah, I’ll bet that is why the Arizona government has pretty much been nodding their head to land sales on their side of the Arizona/Nevada border. They could stand to make a gold mine off of new homeowners who commute to Nevada to work (i.e., basically fleecing people just for the right to have a home to sleep in when they’re not working). Infrastructure could be minimal, with people so desperate for cheap houses in Vegas right now, people would still move there. Kind of like the situation with Pahrump. For those of you who have never heard of “Pahrump” its basically an unincorporated town of trailer parks about an hour away from Las Vegas. It is also where legal prostitution in Nevada is allowed to take place. I’ve been there a few times…two lane highway for an one way hour drive each way, minimal services, no public water or sewer, poverty, NO HOSPITAL and the area is just plain sh1tty. People are now moving there to try and commute to Vegas to work. I could imagine a similar situation happening to the homes being build on the Arizona side of the border.
I pity anyone that moves to either of these places. But hey, at least Pahrump has still has a lower tax rate, and a fully stocked bar at its cathouses.