Although many people may find it hard to believe, the Phoenix area is facing a growing housing shortage, according to real estate experts Mike Orr and Mark Stapp from the W. P. Carey School of Business, who were featured speakers at a forum on April 6.

The unsettled Phoenix metro real estate market saw foreclosures as a share of the market rise to 29 percent in November, according to a report from W. P. Carey School of Business Professor Emeritus Jay Butler.

As analysts debate the possibility of a double dip in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), many would argue that the economy cannot move into a sustainable recovery without improvement in housing.

Good news and bad news from the Phoenix real estate market this month. In August, the absolute number of foreclosures was down compared to a year ago – that’s the good news. But the percentage of the market represented by foreclosures is up -- that's the bad news. W. P.

Sales activity in the Phoenix real estate market slowed significantly between August and September -- largely due to a drop in foreclosure activity -- according to the monthly housing report issued by the W. P. Carey School of Business.

Activity in the Phoenix real estate market dropped in October – a dynamic as seasonal as the cooling temperatures, because in most years sales slow as the holidays approach. A decline in foreclosures was responsible for part of the overall slowing, according to the report authored by W. P.

In the last 12 months major changes have emerged in the troubled Phoenix real estate market — changes that have gone largely unrecognized by the shell-shocked public.

Historically, the heat of summer wilts the Phoenix housing market, a phenomenon reflected in the June housing report from the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at the W. P. Carey School of Business.

Some real estate commentators are making ominous predictions that the market is once again inflating like a bubble. But Mike Orr, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at the W. P. Carey School of Business, says there is no evidence in the data to support their assertions.

Each year Urban Land Institute Arizona presents “Trends Day” -- a major event designed for professionals in the real estate and development industries -- to inform and to spark discussion about current conditions and the latest thinking in planning, design and development.