Cottonwood stands out among healthiest housing markets

In a new study of the healthiest housing markets in Arizona, nine of the top ten are in large urban areas. But there’s one standout: Cottonwood.

Cottonwood, which dubs itself the “heart of wine country,” earned Arizona’s ninth top spot this year in the 2019 Healthy Housing Markets report from financial tech company, SmartAsset. The company’s popular website receives about 45 million visits each month to use its free tools like the “How much house can I afford” and “Rent vs. Buy” calculators.

For the report, SmartAsset used Zillow and U.S. Census data to measure four factors in more than 2,400 cities: stability, affordability, ease of sale and risk of loss.

“A healthy housing market is both stable and affordable,” the study states. “Homeowners in a healthy market should be able to easily sell their homes, with a low risk of losing money over the long run.”

Cottonwood is the only rural area in top ten

Eight of Arizona’s healthiest housing markets are in metro Phoenix and one in Tucson, Catalina, that topped the list.

Cottonwood, that has around 12,000 residents, is the only rural city in the top ten.

That’s no surprise to Cottonwood’s economic development director, Richard Faust, who likens the region to Sonoma County in California.

“We had two or three wine tasting rooms at the beginning of the change of the century in 2000,” Faust said. “Now, we have 124.”

Wine and climate lure visitors and residents

Cottonwood lies in the center of the Verde Valley Wine Trail, a trail of scattered wineries and tasting rooms in the area that is drawing tourists of all ages. A 2017 Northern Arizona study showed tourism generated $56 million into the region that year.

The Mediterranean climate, which is perfect for grape growing, is cooler than the Valley in the summer, rarely reaching 100 degrees.

Cottonwood has a charming historic downtown packed with restaurants, quaint shops and wine tasting rooms. Nearby is hiking, kayaking, birdwatching, and golf. Cottonwood is close to Out of Africa, Montezuma’s Castle, and Cliff Castle Casino. Slide Rock and Sedona are less than 20 miles away. Historic Jerome is 8.

Along with tourism, housing construction is ticking up. Developers are coming in to build including the On the Greens and Vineyards at Cottonwood projects. Vineyards is expected to construct 100 to 200 homes a year for the next five years, Faust said.

There’s a need for more affordable housing for younger residents wanting to move to the area, he said. Nearby is Yavapai College that is graduating students from its viticulture program that also need housing as they move into careers in the region.

Currently, the median home price in the city it $230,000 with an average $157 per square foot, according to Trulia. The average median rent is $1,295.

Affordability most heavily weighted in the study

To rank cities, SmartAsset used data from Zillow and the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey five-year data (2009-2017).

Affordability, the most heavily weighted factor, was determined from the monthly cost of owning a home as a percentage of household income in each county.

The company measured stability from the number of years people remain in their homes and the percentage of homeowners with negative equity. To account for risk, it used the percentage of homes that decreased in value. To determine housing market fluidity, it looked at data on the average time a for-sale home stays on the market.

With SmartAsset’s interactive Healthy Housing Markets map, users can locate the healthiest housing markets among America’s cities. Users can search for the overall healthiest markets or look specifically at one of our four healthy-housing indicators.