Phoenix Noted as City to Watch for Real Estate Growth

With a fast growing economy and population, Phoenix is gaining recognition for the growth happening here across a number of industries.

Most recently, Phoenix drew the attention of TH Real Estate, an investment firm in London that just put out a report highlighting Phoenix as one of the top U.S. cities to capitalize on growth in the real estate market.

The availability and relative affordability of land has made Phoenix a veritable hotbed of opportunity for everyone from residential investors to commercial buyers. Just recently, Microsoft put up $48 million to buy about 280 acres in Goodyear, and Apple is expanding its data center efforts with a gigantic warehouse row in southeast Mesa.

“Phoenix’s pro-business environment and lower costs relative to other Western markets has attracted many companies to the metro,” says Daniel Manware, Analyst for US Research at TH Real Estate. “Companies within the tech industry continue to establish presence within the metro.”

TH Real Estate describes Phoenix as the “next millennial magnet,” putting emphasis on real estate opportunities combined with a booming employment sector, especially in the tech department. Phoenix’s overall robust growth has impacted every real estate property sector, according to TH Real Estate, resulting in an attractive area in which to invest.

“Phoenix is well-positioned to capitalize on its favorable growth prospects. We expect this metro to have continued momentum as its growth metrics such as population, employment, and share of millennials screen high among others in the nation,” adds Manware.

Piggybacking on the idea that millennials are seizing opportunity here, Phoenix and the surrounding areas are seeing a “tech spillover” from places like Silicon Valley, New York City, and Seattle, where living expenses outweigh career growth potential. This is one reason Apple and Microsoft selected Phoenix and why the Valley has earned a seat at the tech innovation table.

The low cost of doing business in sectors like finance and tech has only added to the pull away from extremely pricey parts of the country. Companies like Yelp, PayPal, Oracle and Amazon have satellite operations already set up or underway, which will only boost the attractiveness for post-grads to stick around and start their career here. All this in turn will benefit the economy.

Another reason the real estate investment firm is banking on Phoenix is its proximity to other major cities and parts of the country. Los Angeles is six hours by car and San Francisco is not quite two hours by plane. Denver is close, Las Vegas is a stone’s throw away, and Mexico is in our backyard.

“The ability to capture spill-over from other major West Coast markets is a major factor,” said Manware.

The report goes on to describe how hiring will continue to boom, with a focus on tech-, engineering- and distribution-related jobs. In addition, communications experts and marketing whizzes are projected to head into town to swipe up roles offered at sales and support hubs that will surely relocate, transplanting from Silicon Valley to the Silicon Desert.