by Jonathan Eberle | Aug 11, 2025 | Economy, News
By Jonathan Eberle |
The Greater Phoenix housing market continued its gradual reset in June 2025, signaling a clear shift in momentum from sellers to buyers according to a report from The Ravenscroft Group. Home prices dipped modestly, builders ramped up incentives, and buyers found themselves in the strongest negotiating position in years—marking a pivotal moment for one of the nation’s hottest real estate regions.
While not a repeat of the 2008 housing crash, market data shows a softening across key indicators, as elevated mortgage rates, seasonal slowdowns, and affordability pressures weigh on demand.
According to the group, the median sales price in Phoenix edged down to $449,500, a 0.3% dip from May’s $451,000. Phoenix’s Market Index—a measure of supply vs. demand—fell to 71, further cementing the area’s tilt toward a buyer’s market.
With 30-year fixed mortgage rates hovering around 6.89%, homebuilders are stepping in to maintain momentum. Many are offering interest rate buydowns into the mid-3% range, along with generous closing cost credits, appliance packages, and landscaping perks. This reality has made new construction homes particularly appealing to buyers, many of whom are priced out of the resale market due to borrowing costs.
Real estate trends varied across the Valley in June. Buckeye saw the steepest price shift at -8% while Fountain Hills and Phoenix proper each declined by -6%. Cave Creek transitioned into buyer’s market territory, and Avondale moved from a seller’s to a balanced market.
As of June, the groups says 2 cities are in seller’s markets, 7 cities are considered balanced, and 9 cities have shifted into buyer’s market territory. Outlying cities like Arizona City, Casa Grande, and Gold Canyon lean even more heavily toward buyers.
High recurring costs—such as HOA dues and special assessments—are driving buyers away from attached housing. The listing success rate for condos and townhomes dropped to 58% in May, the lowest since 2011. Manufactured homes fared worse, with fewer than half of listings resulting in a sale.
The Phoenix housing market isn’t collapsing—it’s correcting. Buyers are better positioned than they’ve been in years, and sellers are being forced to recalibrate.
This moment offers unique opportunities for those ready to act—especially in a region still driven by long-term population growth and economic expansion. But navigating it successfully will take strategy, patience, and flexibility on both sides of the deal.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Jun 27, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
After 28 years, the sound of passenger trains arriving in Phoenix could return as soon as 2030. The Federal Railroad Administration has approved the essential scoping documents that will allow the Arizona Department of Transportation to create a Service Development Plan, completing the first stage of the Phoenix-Tucson Intercity Passenger Rail Corridor Study.
The effort will propose passenger rail service along a 158-mile corridor between the greater Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas and will include re-routing the Amtrak Sunset Limited back through Phoenix according to ADOT.
According to Federal Railroad Administration’s FY22 Corridor Identification and Development Program Selections, “The proposed corridor would reconnect Phoenix (Buckeye) to Tucson, AZ, with multiple daily frequencies. The proposed corridor would reinstate service on an existing alignment over which Amtrak discontinued service in 1997, rerouting the long-distance Sunset Limited to a more southerly alignment through Maricopa, AZ (the corridor would use the same route as the existing Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle between Picacho and Tucson, AZ). The corridor sponsor would enter Step 1 of the program to develop a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for preparing, completing, or documenting its service development plan.”
Step 1, as described by the 2022 document, has now been completed.
The Sunset Limited Route, and Amtrak service overall, was diverted from Phoenix following the attack that resulted in the derailment of the train at 1:35 a.m. on October 9, 1995, near Palo Verde, Arizona, 70-miles southwest of Phoenix.
The infamous derailment caused the death of an Amtrak employee and serious injuries to 12 others, along with minor injuries to 100 of the 258 passengers aboard. It remains one of the most famous cold cases in FBI history with no suspects despite a $310,000 reward still offered by several agencies for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the attacker.
Since 1997, Phoenix has remained disconnected from the Amtrak Intercity Rail system with riders required to use buses or drive to the Amtrak depot in Maricopa, Arizona, 38-miles to the south, or about an hour’s drive in traffic.
Democrat Congressman and former Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton hailed the announcement in a post to X writing, “I’ve been fighting to restore Amtrak service to Phoenix for a long time, and today it’s one step closer to becoming a reality.”
In a written statement, current Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs commented, “This is a big step forward for Arizona. I am committed to creating a bright transportation future for our state that fosters economic growth, creates jobs and expands transit opportunities for working people and families.”
The second stage of the process, the creation of a Service Development Plan, is expected to take two to three years after a crucial federal grant is approved, which is anticipated in the weeks to come per ADOT. The study, already funded with a $10.6 million budget, will include technical analysis of “capital and service requirements for passenger rail service; preliminary engineering and costs for capital improvements, such as stations, parking lots and trains; station locations; [and] service scenarios based on ridership potential.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Jun 8, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona’s federal immigration court in Phoenix became off-limits to anti-immigration enforcement protestors and journalists covering them on May 21st when private security ordered them off the property. On May 28th, the Phoenix Police Department issued another warning to the protestors that they could be criminally cited for trespassing. The situation in Arizona is unique for the activists seeking to disrupt deportations because the Federal Immigration Court in Phoenix is located in a privately-owned office building.
Journalists covering the legal proceedings themselves are permitted inside the court as one would normally expect. However, the anti-ICE radicals who have sought to disrupt immigration proceedings in cities across the country, and the reporters following in their wake, are stymied by the newly installed “No Trespassing” signs and ropes to bar them from the private property.
The outlet reported Friday that activist groups and ASU’s First Amendment Clinic (FAC) expressed that the legal situation for protestors and reporters is unclear. Gregg Leslie, executive director of FAC explained, “Right now, it’s not all that clear because of the oddity of how this is all managed. Where the government’s rights take over versus the landlord’s rights, versus the other tenants’ rights.”
He added that the public “right of access,” exists largely as a function of whether a location is on publicly owned land or private land. This is complicated by the courtroom’s location on the third floor of a privately owned building. “If it’s private land owned for public access, there are certain allowances for there being greater public access to it,” he told the outlet.
The protests and subsequent restrictions came following a series of arrests on May 20th and 21st which found dozens of illegal aliens arrested after immigration charges against them were dismissed. Protestors gathered in front of the building chanted “No More ICE!” among other slogans including Spanish profanity. At least one protestor allegedly attempted to pull off an officer’s face covering.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | May 27, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
An investigation by Republican Reps. David Marshall, Walt Blackman, and Quang Nguyen found that the City of Phoenix has distributed over $28.5 million of taxpayer funding to more than 100 private organizations with a shocking lack of oversight. Now, the Goldwater Institute is asking Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes to intervene and stop what it termed an “unlawful spending spree.”
Citing the legislative findings, the Goldwater Institute alleges that “Organizations like the Phoenix Film Foundation, Phoenix Pride Inc, Mexican Baseball Fiesta LLC, the Arizona Science Center’s Galaxy Gala, and many others received subsidies—sometimes simultaneously by multiple departments—under questionable labels like ‘Sponsorships,’ ‘Grants and Subsidies,’ ‘Emerg[ency] Assist[ance],’ or ‘Miscellaneous.’ The city has no lawful authority to spend public money in this way.”
Parker Jackson, a staff attorney at the Goldwater Institute, said in a statement, “This effectively turns large portions of the city’s budget into a patchwork of slush funds that special interests can access in the sole discretion of a single city employee. Amazingly, the city ‘does not track donations by nonprofit status,’ so it does not know exactly how much taxpayer money has been funneled out through this opaque process.”
The reported “Sponsorships,” “Grants and Subsidies,” “Emerg[ency] Assist[ance],” or “Miscellaneous” donations run afoul of the Arizona State Constitution’s Gift Clause according to Jackson in a letter to the Attorney General co-signed by Jon Riches, the Goldwater’s Vice President for Litigation.
Riches wrote, “Most—if not all—of these expenditures appear to violate the Arizona Constitution’s Gift Clause, which strictly prohibits use of public funds to benefit private, special interests. Not only is it doubtful that these allocations serve a legitimate public purpose, but there also appears to be no direct or measurable consideration received in return for this use of public resources.”
The Arizona Constitution under Article 9 Section 7 states, “Neither the state, nor any county, city, town, municipality, or other subdivision of the state shall ever give or loan its credit in the aid of, or make any donation or grant, by subsidy or otherwise, to any individual, association, or corporation, or become a subscriber to, or a shareholder in, any company or corporation, or become a joint owner with any person, company, or corporation, except as to such ownerships as may accrue to the state by operation or provision of law or as authorized by law solely for investment of the monies in the various funds of the state.”
The Goldwater attorneys have called on Mayes to “[e]njoin the illegal payment of public monies” and to “[r]ecover illegally paid public monies,” under A.R.S. § 41-194.01 and A.R.S. § 35-212 respectively.
Jackson wrote in a Goldwater Institute press release that the finding by the Arizona legislature may seem familiar to keen observers: “If treating taxpayers as financiers for private entities—even controversial and ideological ones—sounds familiar, that’s because it mirrors what has been exposed throughout the federal government this year. For example, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was aptly described as ‘a slush fund for leftist priorities’ after the White House exposed decades of waste and abuse in that agency.”
In a video posted to X, Jackson said, “At the end of the day, public dollars should be used for public purposes… not to enrich special interests at a bureaucrat’s whim.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Staff Reporter | May 21, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The city of Phoenix will base its next climate, energy, and food policies on a community survey.
The city’s Office of Environmental Programs (OEP) has an ongoing survey this month in which they offer a $100 VISA gift card drawing as a reward.
The bulk of the questions provide insight as to the potential policy directions the city is looking to take to address climate, energy, and food.
The survey suggested the greatest barriers to addressing climate change may be lack of public information and education, motivation to address climate change, government mandated regulations/support, business or industry support, and public-private coordination; cost of implementation; and difficulty in changing individual behaviors.
The following were proposed incentives for public and alternative modes of transportation: increasing the options, routes, and frequencies of public busing and light rail; increasing infrastructure and safety measures for pedestrian and bicycle transportation; increasing electric vehicle infrastructure; and establishing subsidies for installing electric vehicle chargers in homes and businesses.
Potential policies for aiding in heat relief were also presented: improving access to affordable electricity to reduce electricity costs related to cooling systems; increasing shade by planting more trees and installing shade structures; incorporating heat reducing materials into construction of new or remodeled buildings; using cooling materials and techniques in street surfaces, parking lots, and roofing; and subsidizing the replacement of old cooling systems for energy efficiency.
The survey offered policy proposals for drinking water supply: offering residential and commercial tiered water rate structure plans and rebates for those who adopt water conservation and climate adaptation practices; increasing access to rainwater harvesting, water storage, and wastewater conversion infrastructure; incentivizing and subsidizing residential replacement of lawns to xeriscape or artificial grass or turf; and implementing an education initiative for residential and business/commercial/industrial water conservation.
The survey also requested some insight into residents’ current conservation practices.
Residents were asked to divulge information about their cooling and heating systems and their satisfaction with their function and cost. The survey also sought to learn residents’ financial stability, the impact of their utility bills on their finances, and energy assistance program participation.
Residents were also asked about their food acquisition and consumption practices. In relation to these questions, the survey asked residents to reflect on potential food-related policies: transportation support such as free shuttle services, transit passes, fruit and veggie home delivery; a map of community food access points such as gardens, farmers markets, food box sites; vouchers or assistance for food; neighborhood-based food outlets at corner stores, transit stops, schools, and community spaces; physical spaces to grow food in neighborhoods such as community gardens; and education programs with supplies and hands-on training for gardening.
Residents were also asked to prioritize policies to reduce the environmental impact of food reduction; encourage sustainable farming practices; reduce food insecurity and hunger; increase access to local food; prevent and reduce food waste; educate the community about healthy eating; develop opportunities for new local food businesses; and protect or add new space for farmland or greenspace.
The survey also asks respondents to share where they obtain their information on climate change, the word that comes to mind when they hear the term “climate change,” how often they think about climate change, and their feelings about climate change (whether they are worried, anxious, fearful, overwhelmed, or motivated to take action).
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