Commercial Real Estate and Mortgage In Arizona
Article Summary: This article will help anyone looking for information pertaining to a commercial real estate and commercial lending in the State of Arizona.
Arizona is the fastest growing state in the country, with families flocking
from all over, but especially California, searching for an affordable piece
of the American Dream-homeownership. This is excellent news for the Arizona
commercial real estate market.
Most of Arizona's land is uninhabited, either in the hands of Native American
tribes or state or federal government. What's left of the uninhabited land is,
usually, private farmland. Government land has long been open to multiple uses,
with the primary uses being ranching, mining and recreation. As Arizona's water
resources become more and more scarce, agriculture is quickly giving way to
urban development as Arizona's major population centers-Phoenix, Tucson and
Yuma-spread out into the surrounding deserts and croplands. Private land, formerly
agricultural, has been quickly snapped up by developers and
speculators at a premium, and savvy investors are paying closer attention to
state trust lands, which are sold by the state relatively cheaply. While state
trust land can seem like a bargain for a developer, be aware that state trust
land usually sits in prime recreational or sensitive environmental areas. Combine
this with the inherently political nature of the trust land system, and purchasing
state trust land can be a more costly proposition than an investor might think.
Particularly in the more environmentalist southern part of the state, community
and environmental activists can squash a public land deal.
The residential market is still relatively strong in Arizona, mostly due to
the constant stream of new residents, but it is softening. Hit particularly
hard are developers who built new construction homes at the tail end of the
real estate boom. Developers are still building new construction homes, today,
and selling them more cheaply than they were yesterday. While you can purchase
a residence for a great price, don't expect to be able to flip it for
a nice profit in the next few years. Indeed, it will be hard to flip almost
any residential property for the next couple years as the Arizona residential
market is flooded with out of state speculators and investors. Phoenix and Tucson,
both of which have public universities with student bodies over 30,000, have
strong, reliable, though seasonal, rental markets.
Outside of Phoenix, the state is underserved by retailers. There are great
business opportunities for large, national chains to move in as well as for
franchises of national chains. Most areas are open to all types of development,
but in the southeast and the northeastern parts of state, there is some resistance
to national, particularly big box developers, since these areas use their unique
environmental and cultural features as economic engines. As well, the market
for office development remains strong. There are still vacant lots within the
major cities, and all the major urban cores are going through a renaissance,
so look to infill for retail and office property.
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