Arizona Sucks

When life might have become uncertain, gloomy, too expensive, or stagnant, people have turned to Arizona hoping for a brighter future and brighter days. With over 300 days of sunshine a year, plenty of people are easily convinced that a move to the Phoenix area is the right thing to do. And on just about any relocation website you will come across, Arizona sounds like a pretty damn good choice. You will come across countless claims on the affordable housing, an expanding and prosperous job market, terrific year-round weather, and a million other reasons why you should join the millions of lost souls spread throughout the state of Arizona.

It is not until you pack up the family, all your belongings, the golden retriever, and actually make the move to Arizona that you will realize life out here is drastically different than what your Realtor had told you. You will encounter life forms you were sure only existed on other planets, a job market that appears to be severely misplaced, and a housing market that may never fully recover. Everything you had ever worked for essentially thrown away in that snap relocation decision, and now you must live out your sentence melting away in an extremely over-priced stucco dwelling in the Arizona summer heat. You will go from having your own office to working your own drive-thru window – you will go from having equity in a nice house in an established neighborhood to paying down a mortgage which is hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the home is actually worth – you will go from having real, valued friendships to locked away in your house to avoid these people, all the crime, and the temperature extremes. It won’t take long until you realize you have become just another one of the many trapped in this discouraging, dusty, densely packed desert called Arizona.

Anyone with two brain cells left to rub together will know that Arizona is known for low wages and that the mainstream careers out here include retail and call centers. It is unfortunate that the job market in Arizona is so piss poor, but to say that it is anything else would be a straight up lie. Since there are so few places to further your career in Arizona, many people end up working the drive thru window or retail just to support their families. Plenty of people in Arizona are stuck in jobs where it becomes next to impossible to put away any money or acquire any valuable skill sets for a real chance to get themselves out of this mess. It is hard enough to land an out-of-state job, but it is increasingly more difficult if your recent work experience was polishing urinal mints at an Arizona fast food chain. Employers want experience and there aren’t too many jobs in Arizona where you can gain this experience unless you always dreamt of maximizing your number of plates washed or outbound calls per hour. Those stuck trying to move out of Arizona often realize that any time spent in Arizona has done nothing to build their resume or expand their professional network and this makes it increasingly difficult to leave. Arizona will not help you further your career and even if you do manage to get out, you will be stuck all the way at the bottom once again.

So many people bought into Arizona’s bogus housing market and are now stuck with mortgages they will spend a lifetime paying off. It is frightening how many people in Arizona are paying hefty mortgages, are upside down on their mortgages, or are just a month away from foreclosing. The Arizona housing market is not rebounding anytime soon, and many people who buy out here really have no idea what they are potentially in for. You would be surprised to find out just how many people are stuck out here just because they have a mortgage on a house they couldn’t dream of selling and can’t find any qualified renters for. In a real estate market where there are already so many available homes, more developments going up for some reason, and so few buyers, it really gives those buyers and potential renters the upper hand. Many people cannot afford to take the several hundred thousand dollar hit by selling their homes right now, so they end up stuck living in Arizona even though it is often not by choice.

Countless others arrive in Arizona and just let themselves completely go. Just a few months in Arizona and it is understood that ambition means nothing out here. Look at the people around you – so many people out here surround themselves with beers, double cheeseburgers, and chrome wheels they are just renting. It is absolutely astonishing when you look at the number of people who move to Arizona and become social drinkers who drink every day, drive-thru regulars, and people who think getting paid anything over ten dollars per hour is a lot of money. Arizona is a strange place and many people fall right into the trap, and become just as useless as the next guy out here. The overall vibe in Arizona is just scraping by, and once you also develop this mindset, it is next to impossible to accomplish anything. Suddenly, you have zero goals and no initiative, and the only thing keeping you kind-of going is the thought of going to Happy Hour. You no longer care about advancing yourself or your career, and as long as you have booze and fast food close by, you become just content enough to actually live in this wasteland.

It is easy to say that none of the above will happen to you – make the move to Arizona and see what happens. I don’t think a lot of people want to imagine what would happen if they were trapped in a desert, but it happens to thousands of people who move to Arizona each year.

The game is officially over for so many in Arizona as we watch our population numbers continue to plunge. Arizona and so many of its residents counted on this growth and expansion to keep their jobs, businesses, and the local economy intact. The state of Arizona now has fewer people moving in, zero need for any new developments, people are running out of money, businesses are closing their doors, and jobs are running dry. This downturn in population growth has hurt a number of industries and has put a number of construction workers, Realtors, mortgage/loan consultants, strip mall, and restaurant workers out of work with nowhere to turn to in this beaten Arizona economy. Maybe, just maybe people are starting to wise up to the fact that Arizona is not a tropical paradise, but really a dusty, lackluster, hopeless, dreadful, terrifying, dead end place where you never want to find yourself. A few lurking surprises will await you should you choose to relocate yourself to a life out here in the sweltering desert, and these could just be a few of the reasons people are now saying NO to Arizona.

Traffic / Drivers / Congestion – the huge population surge in recent years has absolutely hammered Arizona freeways and surface streets. Most of the major roadways in Arizona were built far before the extreme population growth and have been at max capacity for quite some time. Travel around much of the Phoenix area is a mess right now especially during the rush hour, in construction zones, or whenever there is another accident. And in Phoenix, there are a lot of accidents. It is pretty much a fact that Arizona roadways just are not a safe place to be and you will witness this every single time you get in your car. You are guaranteed to see some of the most bizarre accidents and driving techniques while driving around Arizona. It doesn’t help that everything in Arizona is so spread out and driving is an absolute necessity to go anywhere or do anything. Most people live so far away from their jobs that it creates long, hot, and treacherous, commutes for the majority of residents out here. Of course, it is completely expected that a city the size of Phoenix will have some traffic and congestion concerns. However, it is the toxic amalgamation of drunk, illegal, inexperienced, aged, incompetent, and otherwise terrifying drivers out here that is really the icing on the cake, and will make you really wish the next time you got in your car that you were driving out of Arizona forever!

Low wages / Lack of jobs – we get it, a lot of Arizona Natives are perfectly content working in dead end jobs with no advancement and minimal pay. However, Arizona organizations are not going to attract or retain solid employees with this mindless business model. It has become shockingly clear to people just how poor the job market is in Arizona and people have stopped moving here looking for work because of this. People are not going to move to Arizona to make 30K (and often even less) while working in call centers, fast food restaurants, or mailing out DVDs. The lack of real, good jobs is going to keep the bright, educated, and innovative people out of Arizona unless there is a significant turnaround at some point. There is a reason that get-rich-quick, pyramid schemes, selling magazines door-to-door, and other scams are so popular across metropolitan Phoenix – the majority of jobs out here pay at the high school level no matter what your education or experience level may be.

Crime – in a big city, crime is certainly expected. In Phoenix, crime is running rampant and seems to be getting worse every year. Shootings, armed robberies, mail theft, drugs, property damage, stolen cars, rape, senseless killings, child abductions, hit-and-runs, human smuggling – you name it, we have it in Arizona and it is probably flourishing in your own neighborhood. You may have heard otherwise, but the crime in the Phoenix and Tucson areas appears to be on the rise and can only get worse as the desperation continues out here. Sadly, it has really become a question of when, and not if something will happen to you. Everyone in Arizona is a target at this point, even those who most of us look at as having just about nothing left. Have a car, a house, a MP3 player, a case of Ice House beer, a watch, a pack of cigarettes, or maybe just a dollar in change – you are next. It is only in Arizona that you will regularly hear these mind-boggling violent news stories that even the most fanatical Hollywood writers could never even dream up. In other words, you can’t make this shit up.

Phoenix, Arizona – it’s affordable for a reason!!

If you have spent any sort of time in or around Arizona over the last few years then you had to have seen the eventual decline in construction out here coming. It was only a few years ago that the ‘Great Arizona Gold Rush’ would arrive in the Phoenix area. It prospered more than anyone would have ever imagined, promptly vanished, and would end up spoiling Arizona’s economy for years to come. It was during these golden days in Arizona that the Arizona housing market and construction industry felt as hot as a beautiful, August day out here. Loans were available for anyone and everyone, and the abuse was not about to stop there. Money was essentially being given away and everyone was encouraged to buy, buy, buy! Arizona home builders, Realtors, and home flippers were making tons of cash and many believed they were on the fast track to early retirement. Arizona residents were selling their homes for soaring profits, but quickly realized they were priced out of the market just weeks later. Construction workers were being bused in just to keep up with demand and many had projected that we would have construction jobs out here to fill for years to come. It was a crazy time in Arizona as construction flourished, property values were always higher than the day before, people were smiling, and there was a ton of money to be made if you played your cards right. For a short while, Arizona looked like the place to be or at least the place to invest your money in. So many people including Arizona Realtors, outside investors, home builders, and casual investors were certain this streak would continue and there was no way anyone was about to lose in this erupting Phoenix market.

It turned out that the only hot streak that would continue across Arizona would be our record setting number of days over 110 degrees just a couple years back. The state of Arizona and its inhabitants were left in quite a predicament once the housing bubble finally burst, banks tightened their lending practices, and the ‘free’ money had finally run dry. People were no longer moving to Arizona, the majority of residents were now priced out of the market, many builders had gone bankrupt, partially built developments were deserted, and there became little reason to continue building anything. Arizona’s economy had always been tied directly to population growth, construction, expansion, and the growing real estate market which was suddenly no longer here to assure us that the Arizona economy would continue moving right along. These days, the state of Arizona has no money left, the vast majority of Arizona residents have no money, and outside investors have all but vanished. We now have a surplus of moderately filled and deteriorating apartments, vacant office buildings all over the place, just about every strip mall in Arizona is half empty, and foreclosed homes line our streets. As artificial as it may have been, the construction boom in the Phoenix area is effectively over and wiped out a number of jobs a lot of people had always counted on being available out here.

The numbers are out, and the number of construction jobs lost in Arizona during 2009 is nothing short of depressing, especially for a state where the job market is non-existent to begin with. It has been reported that 26 percent of Arizona construction workers, or 40,300 individuals lost their construction jobs during 2009. That is a lot of people no matter how you slice it and our construction numbers had already been dwindling for the last few years. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this downturn will not affect you just because you might have no direct ties to the construction industry. The housing bubble bursting, the sharp decline in Arizona population growth, and the loss of jobs around the state is hurting everyone right now. The state, quite a few local businesses, and countless folks have run out of money and don’t know where to turn. Many people and even the state of Arizona are fishing around right now for a bailout. Numerous businesses including restaurants, car dealerships, movie theaters, and grocery stores have closed their doors and were forced to lay off a number of people. Even a number of state parks and rest areas in Arizona are in the process of shutting down for the time being. We have so many unemployed across Phoenix right now who are all stuck fighting for the same jobs that the situation becomes increasingly worse every time another industry or organization suffers a blow. The massive decline in the construction and real estate industries have effectively saturated our Arizona unemployment lines for years to come. There are just too many applicants and not enough jobs out there for everyone looking for work.

The major setback for these Arizona construction workers who are now out-of-work is that the number of construction jobs in Arizona probably won’t be picking up again for quite some time. It has been said that the Arizona construction industry is showing small signs of improving this year, but just take a look around you at all the vacant homes, office buildings, restaurants, and strip malls and it should give you an idea of just how much Arizona was overbuilt. Everyone in Arizona will pay for the overbuilding and greed which consumed so much of Arizona just a few short years ago.

I’ve heard it, you’ve heard it, we’ve all heard it several times – ‘it’s the same everywhere else’ – it has slowly but surely become the go-to argument whenever a negative story or comment is shared about how life really is in Arizona. This argument has really increased in popularity out here over the last few years as many have tried to relate Arizona’s problems with that of the nation’s struggling economy. There are some people out here who may actually believe that other states are having the same economic, real estate, crime, and job struggles which we are dealing with in Arizona. Maybe you’ve even wondered if it really is this bad everywhere else in the country?

Not a chance. Do other states share some of the similar problems? Absolutely. Do other states have their own issues to deal with? They sure do. How many other states are stuck with permanent economic and social issues? Not many. Could it be the economy? Elsewhere, yes – in Arizona, not really. Is it just that the future for Arizona and its residents doesn’t sound all that appealing? Probably.

Anyone who really believes that the problems we are experiencing in Arizona are ‘the same as everywhere else’ either has never left the state of Arizona, has been stuck here so long that the heat has left them with no rational thought left, or is just ignorant to what is really going on around them. Look around you – most of these issues found here are not plaguing the rest of the country. Arizona does share some similar struggles with the rest of the nation, but the main difference is the rest of the country will probably recover at some point. Three of Arizona’s major struggles which will continue for the forseeable future include the housing market, job market, and increasing violence. I’ll keep it pleasant and much, much shorter by leaving the weather, schools, residents, drivers, traffic, and lack of things to do out of this one.

Arizona’s Housing Market – finished. I really don’t think there is a simpler way to describe how the real estate market is going to continue playing out here in the coming years. The growth over the last 10 years fueled a real estate boom like something never seen before. Brand new developments went up all over the Phoenix area and each new development managed to get farther and farther away from the center of this mess. The homes continued to go up, but the population growth did not. The homes became larger, more feature packed, and pricier, but the number of unemployed and underemployed in Arizona increased. Arizona now struggles with tons of vacant homes, foreclosures galore, and a population struggling just to make rent. Who is going to buy these houses now? Arizona has always relied on growth to keep the bulk of its economy moving along, but what happens now as the growth continues to go down? More foreclosures and extremely cheap housing for anyone dumb enough to still move out here. Investors will certainly be shopping around for the best bargains, but might be in for quite a surprise when they realize nobody wants their home or they have to accept Pesos just to get someone to rent their home. I’ve said it before, and it needs to be said again – avoid the Arizona housing market all together unless you plan on staying for a very, very long time.

Arizona’s Job Market – almost non-existant with the exception of the retail, call center, and fast food industries. Even the construction jobs have vanished since we have vacant homes, offices, and strip malls for years to come. It will be interesting to see how the restaurant and service industry fare in Arizona since disposable income is just another thing running dry out here in the desert. Arizona’s job market will not rebound like that of the rest of the country because it can’t come back around since there was never really any jobs here in the first place. The so called HOT job market in Arizona was one of the more elaborate schemes coming out of Arizona which was pioneered, abused, and a success story for many Realtors around the state. It was simple, but it worked – create a false job market, persuade people to relocate to Arizona, and then sell them a home. The result was thousands upon thousands of people who made the voyage to Phoenix in the hunt for a piece of this bogus job market. So many people moved out here thinking good jobs were abundant, bought homes, and then could never find work. Want a good job, maybe even a career? You probably want to avoid Arizona, unless you want to push shopping carts around while it is 117 degrees outside.

Arizona’s Escalating Violence/Gang Activity/Drugs – they say crime is going down in Arizona, but picking up a newspaper, watching the news, or just keeping an eye on what is going on around you would tell you otherwise. The crimes out here seem to get crazier and more intense every year. Arizona criminals are desperate and will go after anyone and everyone including kids, the elderly, cops, the homeless, and even your pets. Fanatical crimes happen everywhere in Arizona from the white trash trailer parks to the illegal ridden apartments to the so-called affluent area of North Scottsdale. Drugs are all over the place as well, and what were once normal people will now do anything to get their fix. The schools out here can’t brag about the education your children are getting, but they do offer great exposure to gang activity and hard drugs. The number of gangs is on the rise across Phoenix, and the bulk of it is originating from our friends down South. Drug, human, and weapon smuggling is commonplace in Arizona and something you probably don’t want to get in the middle of. The most alarming part about all the violence and crime in Arizona is that it is only going to get worse as more illegals creep in, more people lose their jobs and houses, and the meth use continues to rise. It is quite the situation out here and it is definitely not the same everywhere else.

Still think Arizona is exactly or close to being like anywhere else? Think again.

In case you missed it or are fortunate enough to be outside of the Phoenix area, a local Arizona news station ran a piece last week about how life out in Arizona might be portrayed to the rest of the country. Viewers were left to ponder the question of whether or not the state of Arizona has a national image problem. Surprisingly enough, this is a great example of the typical Arizona attitude for you – instead of considering what the necessary steps are to begin fixing the multitude of problems currently plaguing the state and its millions of residents, even the news stations out here are more concerned with only how Arizona and its people LOOK to the National eye. With that being said, it is pretty clear to most people these days that Arizona does have an increasing image problem because the truth about Arizona has been exposed as the population growth went way up in recent years, and also as a result of the mortgage fraud and subsequent real estate meltdown out here in the last few years. Here are just a couple of Arizona’s many problems grabbing attention in the national spotlight:

Worst school systems in the country – that’s right, every single other state around the country outranks Arizona when it comes to public schooling. Education is not valued in Arizona and this certainly affects all facets of life out here from the workplace to the grocery store to eating out at a restaurant. You can continue to make excuses, move your children to another Arizona school district, or even continue lying to yourself – it does not matter though – you are putting your children’s safety and future at risk by sending them to any of Arizona public schools. If you have kids or plan on having children, you really should re-evaluate settling down in Arizona at least until your children are in college.

Increasing violence and hate crimes – every single year, the violence in Arizona seems to be getting worse and increasingly more violent. Nobody wants to admit to it, but these crimes are increasing and becoming even more commonplace – and don’t think you can escape it by moving to a supposedly higher income zip code or to a gated community. Arizona boasts some of the craziest, most unbelievable crime stories that you could not even make up if you wanted to. Watch just one day of the local Arizona news and you will never want to step foot in this place again.

Weather – the one problem that can never be fixed, but it is still important to continually point out how dreadful and depressing the summers can be out here. You know the weather in Arizona is terrible when even people who are just quickly passing through on a cross-country road trip still feel the need to complain about how high the temperatures are out here. It’s never going to get any cooler in Arizona, so stay far away unless you are prepared for month-after-month of the extreme heat, and the famous Arizona dry heat argument goes right out the window when the temperatures are over 100 degrees.

Economy – what economy? Arizona population growth is dwindling, construction is way down, there were never any great jobs in Arizona, and now we have a surplus of houses and commercial buildings. How is Arizona going to turn it all around this time? Can Arizona rely on its economic growth strategy with such a poor national image? Probably not – Arizona is a retirement and winter golf state, at best, and that is all it should have ever been provided there was enough water for all this grass out here.

What it really comes down to is what does the state of Arizona have to offer you? Is it the comparatively warmer winters? Or is it all the congestion, pollution, violence, and blowing dust storms? What does Arizona offer you that you can’t find anywhere else, except for those 4-5 months of temperatures over 100 degrees? Don’t wait for Arizona to try and fix its deteriorating image – get out while you still can and still have your sanity.

Many thanks to member, Out of AZ, for recently posting this invaluable, honest look at how life really is in Arizona. I wanted to be sure everyone got a chance to read it, so enjoy!

I lived in the Phoenix area of AZ for eight years and just moved back to CO this summer. There are definitely negatives about anywhere, but there seems to be more in Phoenix than most. I’ve lived in NY, CA, CO, and NE and AZ is definitely the worst of all the places I’ve been.

For the nation’s fifth biggest city, there is absolutely nothing to do. You can go to one of 1235 shopping malls around the valley to escape the heat or go watch a movie, but you can do that anywhere in the country. You can go to an indoor baseball game if you can afford it. If you don’t have a swimming pool, your time in Phoenix will be miserable. If you do have a pool, expect crazy APS/SRP electric bills due to the pool and 24-hour air conditioning your house will need to keep it livable.

Your car will take a beating, the heat notwithstanding, but also the AZ drivers that you’ll drive defensively to avoid slamming into. Constant road construction is also a negative. There is approximately 15 miles of valley freeway closed every weekend for construction.

The job scene isn’t all that great. Not only is this place a right-to-work (more like right-to-get-fired-for-no-reason) state, the economy is heavily dependent on construction, which has all but ceased to exist right now.

There are like 21236 strip malls in Phoenix that look exactly like the 21235 others in the area. Same stores, same restaurants, same landscaping. It’s pretty hellish. And now, roughly half of most of the strip malls stand empty because of Arizona’s economy (and the broader US economy as well).

There’s no culture here. I’m not kidding. The best Mexican food here comes from chain restaurants. Or at least that’s what most Phoenicians think. Most Phoenicians love spending long weekends in Mexico but look down on Mexicans, Mexican food, and Mexican culture. Any other culture? Forget it, the best Italian food in the valley is at Olive Garden, the best Chinese is at Panda Express. For a metro area with a population over 4 million, it’s pretty pathetic.

The homes/neighborhoods/cities all look the same. Stucco brown boxes with eight tons of crushed rock in the front yard. You don’t know if you are in Ahwatukee, Tempe, Peoria or Chandler. It’s all the same.

I don’t know about public schools, I don’t have kids. But I will say that if you really think you’re going to receive a world-class education in a college with 70,000 others like at ASU or by paying tens of thousands for a degree people may or may not take seriously like at University of Phoenix, this may be a good place.

Phoenix is a waste. Truly. They waste water for miles of grass for golf courses or huge resorts. There are fountains and fake lakes everywhere. It’s great if you want to live near a body of green water so you can be eaten alive by mosquitoes. They waste electricity. How else do you justify living in a town that can get upwards of 120 degrees?

Phoenix is a demonstration of human accomplishment and hubris all at once. The fact that you can take a desolate, uninhabitable desert and turn it into the nation’s fifth-largest city shows what we can accomplish as a society. But for what purpose? So your kids can stay indoors for six months watching tv and playing video games because it’s too hot to play outside. So you can drive in your air conditioned car to your air conditioned office and back to your air conditioned home. So you can earn less money than most people doing the same job in the rest of the country. All this, with fluctuating real estate values, increasing crime, decreasing job opportunities, it’s all reason to stay out of Phoenix.

The secret is out – the quantity of quality jobs in Arizona is extremely low. Finding one of the few great job opportunities in Arizona is nearly impossible, but these days people are struggling in their hunt for any sort of job out here. Obviously, the economy across the country isn’t doing too great right now, but the employment situation in Arizona probably won’t be rebounding any time soon as it will be in many places. Arizona has always been known for its call center and construction jobs, along with a number of positions tied directly to the building, leasing, and selling of local real estate. There are very few companies headquartered in the area and a limited number of jobs out here outside of the construction, real estate, and service industries. The majority of Arizona residents have always relied on working these retail, foodservice, and construction jobs and many were happy to do so – remember, the majority out here have little desire to get ahead. The great Arizona housing crash has not only successfully dropped Arizona housing prices back to reality and then some, but has also led to a depressing situation in the Arizona job market for many residents here.

As Arizona experienced record population growth in recent years, it led to a false sense of security for many and a very temporary job market. Construction teams were busy building up house after house, along with the adjacent community shopping centers. More and more service jobs were created to service all the residents in these newer communities and strip malls which shot up around Phoenix. Many people jumped into real estate and mortgage jobs in order to keep up with the temporary demand and most saw it as their gold ticket to early retirement. The mindset in Arizona seemed to to be that the population growth would continue, home values would continue to go up, and jobs were more than secure. So, now that the real estate bubble burst and took tons of real estate and construction related jobs with it, what is your now out of work Arizona Realtor or mortgage broker to do? Well, you have probably seen many of them out and about as many now work at Safeway, Burger King, Bashas’, or Applebees – jobs that a lot of people in Arizona had always relied on being available. And in a place like Arizona, this trend is likely to continue for quite some time as all those excess mortgage and constructions jobs just aren’t needed anymore.

Times are tough for your average Arizona resident and they aren’t going to be getting better any time soon. More jobs aren’t going to appear out of thin air – if anything, the number of available jobs in Arizona is actually declining. Next time you head out, count how many strip malls have vacant openings or how many grocery stores have closed down or the now empty fast food restaurant buildings. And it seems like someone finally wised up to the fact that it might be time to slow down all the new home and commercial property builds – many of which sit vacant regardless of location. These retail and service jobs were the jobs Arizona’s people had relied on for so long and many of these jobs are now done by out of work Arizona Realtors and construction workers. It was bad enough that there were never really any good jobs in Arizona, but now that there is pretty much NO jobs in Arizona – good luck!

The few people out here who actually have not been foreclosed on and are still making those monthly mortgage payments have got to be wondering what their home is actually worth in this brutal Arizona housing market. Many have realized they will never come out ahead as they significantly overpaid for their house a few years back, others are under the impression that Arizona property values will rise as much and as quickly as they did in recent years, and there are some others who just want to return to the days of living in a neighborhood that is not filled with vacant houses and houses which are desperately rented out to herds of illegals. I recently came across an article in regards to the top signs that your home may be losing value. Obviously, there is really only one way to know what your home is truly worth and that is to clean it up and put it on the market. Unfortunately, despite what your Realtor, neighbors, and coworkers may claim, it does not look like Arizona home values will be turning around anytime soon. Here are just a few of the reasons why:

Foreclosures in your neighborhood – we all know by now that Arizona is home to a plethora of 30k millionaires, wannabes, fakes, and those stuck in the constant struggle of keeping up with everyone else’s material possessions. It started with just clothes, cars, alcoholic beverages, and upscale electronics and then turned into having to have the most elaborate house with the lavish swimming pool, and the largest garage on the block. As Arizona home prices inched upwards and these people continued to buy, a lot of people put themselves in situations which they could never recover from. You will lose every time you try and keep up with someone when you don’t have the right assets – in this case, financial wealth. So, what do we have in Arizona? Thousands of people who bought homes they could have never dreamt of affording and have been foreclosed on. And all those foreclosures lining your community surely aren’t helping your property values. While it is fact that people have been foreclosed on in every area and zip code across Arizona – the neighborhoods that are really going to feel the downfall of all these foreclosures will be those who bought fringe properties assuming the population growth and rise in home values seen in recent years would continue.

Homes lingering on the market – if you were to drive around your block right now, how many ‘home for sale’ signs could you count? In fact, you probably have a pretty good idea without even stepping out your front door since so many Arizona homes have just been sitting on the market for so long. The further out from the city you go, the more likely you are to encounter multiple homes for sale on each street you drive down. There are so few desirable areas or communities in Arizona and all the houses/subdivisions are essentially the same anyways – so why buy somewhere when it is cheaper a few streets over? If a home sits around long enough, it’s price certainly isn’t going to go up; banks, investors, and former owners are only going to hold properties for so long before they give up and slash the price, which will drag down the value of your Arizona home as well.

Increasing unemployment – the future of employment in Arizona looks anything but promising. Unlike most other places, there is not going to be a rebound in jobs available as the economy turns. Job growth in Arizona will probably remain fairly stagnant even in the construction, fast food, and retail industry. Just about the only reason it looked like there was job growth in Arizona in recent years was that someone had to build and then work in the newly created strip malls to service all the new residents of the Valley’s newly built up fringe cities. Those days are long gone – and with so few jobs out here it is going to be hard for people to qualify for a mortgage with no income. Excess homes and a low number of qualified buyers means people are going to shop around and the value of your home will go down unless you really have something to offer potential buyers.

Homes in disrepair – vacant homes, homes filled with questionable renters as a last resort to falling into foreclosure, and homes needing repairs which just aren’t in the budget. It won’t matter how nice you keep your property when the vacant property next door has boarded up windows and weeds taller than your cars. On the other side of your home is a three bedroom house filled with 19 illegals with two more on the way. They blare their annoying music all day, are constantly rotating out wheels in the continuous quest for the smallest wheels that stick out the most for their barely running Explorer, their lawn is littered with Bud Ice cans, and their kids will treat your lawn as their own. Then there are the homes that are not kept up since nobody has any money – many Arizona homes need paint work, roofing work, and other improvements which are certainly bringing down property values through out the neighborhood.

So, the real question is who is going to be able to afford these Arizona homes? In the past, Arizona always relied on growth to fill these overbuilt, overpriced, miles-from-anything homes. The growth is drying up just like everything else is out here except for the few native plants left. If you don’t have people out here who have the desire or the finances to purchase these homes and you have fewer people moving here then what do you have? A severe excess of homes which is only going to keep prices down for a long time.

Just a few years ago, there were so many in Arizona who didn’t have a complaint in the world except for the hot weather, the abundance of rude people, and a severe lack of anything to do. Homes were selling quicker than they could go up, Arizona Realtors were making unheard of commissions, and others were successfully flipping home after home to out of state investors. The construction industry was moving right along and there were tons of new construction jobs and retail/service jobs in the endless communities which shot up around Phoenix. Just about everywhere you looked in the Phoenix area – if there was flat, open land – there were homes or strip malls being built. Logic tells you this couldn’t go on forever, but it was as if some in Arizona were actually under the impression that everyone across the country would relocate to Arizona at some point in the near future. It is quite comical to watch this suburban sprawl in Arizona especially since everything looks exactly the same except for maybe the color of the street signs.

Community after community went up, with the adjacent strip mall, fast food restaurants, and the corner Chilis restaurant in typical Arizona fashion. As each community was built, each became increasingly farther and farther away from the central hub of downtown Phoenix – which is what I would call just about the center of this mess we call the Phoenix metropolitan area. Fortunately, few people are actually tied to the downtown area and there really isn’t shit to see or do there – maybe with the exception of the Suns and the Diamondbacks when they are having better than average seasons. However, I would wager most of your larger job centers in Arizona are within a 15-20 mile range of downtown Phoenix. What does this mean for people who bought homes in the newer communities built out in Buckeye, Queen Creek, far North Phoenix, east Mesa, Surprise, and Maricopa – long and extremely dangerous commutes if you actually have a job. If you happen to live in one of these communities and work there too, then you have really lucked out, especially by Arizona standards – you have a job, you spend less time on Arizona’s unsafe roadways, and you have access to much cheaper real estate. The question is how will these communities survive? Now that the Arizona home rush is over, less people are moving here, and home prices are back to reality – who is really going to want to live that far out from everything that some say Phoenix has to offer? What is going to happen to those communities where every other house is in foreclosure and houses have been sitting vacant for months? How low are home prices in these areas going to go?

Looking at the current situation we are in here in Arizona, it is hard to believe that just a few years back houses could not be built quick enough out here. People were ready to buy and many homes were selling before they even hit the market. It was during this time that apartment conversions skyrocketed in the Phoenix area to try and keep up with demand, especially in areas like Scottsdale. It is certainly much easier, as well as a great deal cheaper, to take these preexisting apartments and drop in a few upgrades, instead of building from the ground all the way up. Transforming former Arizona apartments into so-called condos also allowed you to make the most out of older apartments that are located in areas which are seen as more desirable. You can charge quite a bit more for real estate that is more centrally located in the Phoenix area, as opposed to all the new builds way out in Buckeye or Apache Junction. Sure the location might be great and these newly named condos might look super nice when you first step inside, even though the outside of most still screams trashy apartment, but are they really a wise buy for your money?

Looks can surely be deceiving and this could not be any more apparent than when it comes to most of these Arizona condo conversions. It was imperative that these Arizona condo conversions were done quickly, cheaply, and efficiently in order to maximize profits before the market turned – if not, you would be the one taking the financial hit when Arizona’s housing market went south. So, how much time, effort, and cash was actually put into the majority of these recent conversions? Well, it’s not that hard to rip out the brown or green 1970s appliances and replace them with new, bottom of the line stainless steel appliances. Add cheap, knockoff granite counter tops and update some of the archaic light fixtures and you have already made the place look a thousand times better while keeping your costs extremely low. Now just repaint the aging walls and replace the stained carpet with the cheapest tile you can find, and you have successfully finished your Arizona condo conversion. This is reality – most Arizona condo conversions consist of not much more than new paint, appliances, lighting fixtures, and flooring.

The motto and underlying sales tactic for anyone trying to sell you one of these properties is, when in doubt or questioned about anything, rave about the resort like pool. A number of these Arizona conversions spent a significant portion of the cash set aside for the conversion on upgrading the pool area. Many added new palm trees, maybe some tiki torches, and newer bamboo chairs and umbrellas. Some spent a fair amount on resurfacing the old pool, while others did nothing except for making things appear better than they actually are. Almost every one these Arizona condo conversion brags about having resort/Vegas style pools with all the same amenities you would find there which is really not the case. Don’t be fooled – how much time do you think you will actually be at the pool anyways and don’t forget you are sharing this pool with all your loud, drunk, disease ridden, meth dealing neighbors.

Before you even consider buying one of these properties, you must remember that many of these units were sold without consideration for the future of the community or its residents – this is not a planned community, it is essentially a get rich and get out scheme. HOA fees are often absurdly high to ensure maximum profit for those part of the conversion process – funds in the HOA capital reserve for potential large expenses such as pool maintenance and roofing repairs are pretty much non-existent until you have owners regularly paying their dues. But, remember most of these properties were sold when the housing market was at its peak and everything was way overpriced. Many have since been foreclosed on or have renters who are paying extremely low rent, and many units still sit vacant because most were picked up as investments. When you rely on HOA funds for general maintenance, pool upkeep, and other community repairs with so many units in foreclosure, you really have an issue on your hand. A number of these condos also suffer from being poorly managed and developed since these old apartments were purchased to get them on the market as quickly and cheaply as possible. If you still plan on purchasing an Arizona condo conversion, make sure you know exactly what your monthly dues are, what they cover, and how the reserve funds are handled.

Are there are condo conversions that might be worth looking at in Arizona? Sure, there might be, but good luck finding them. Many of these Arizona condo conversions were done as quickly and cheaply as possible in order to get them on the market while it was still promising. Be warned, most of these Arizona condo conversions are the equivalent of a cheap paint job – it might look nice the first few weeks but will quickly show just how imperfect it is. And unlike the apartment it once was, you can’t just terminate your mortgage like you could with that lease. Condo conversions are often cheaper than original condos/townhomes because all they really are would be apartments with stainless steel appliances and often a large HOA fee. You are still living with paper thin walls, aging and possibly deteriorating plumbing and electrical lines which are often overlooked since they are hidden from view, and usually a thoughtless design and layout inside your unit and that of the entire community. Save your money and buy a real condo or a house or just avoid the mess of Arizona real estate all together.