“To give you some idea, Maricopa County, which is the largest county in the US, has a population of about 4.4 million people, but we only have about 5,000 active listings for all of them. Normally in the market there would be about 20,000.”
A native New Yorker, Schacter moved to Arizona in 1997 and is fully conversant with market trends, having worked in the mortgage industry for the last 22 years and experienced the 2008-2010 downturns along the way.
The crisis has led many realtors to resort to novel methods to compensate for the lack of inventory. “There are lotteries now, meaning that if you want to buy a new build you add your name to a lottery, and if you’re lucky enough to get a winning ticket you can buy a house.”
He described the current situation as “chaotic”. He said the COVID pandemic had only served to exacerbate the housing shortage – albeit in an indirect way – as many corporations have accepted the economic benefits of home working.
With no office constraints, Californians have been relocating to Arizona, attracted by relatively low house prices.