Phoenix has it’s problems, but they’re small compared to those in other cities

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my column this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link). I’m not grave-robbing San Diego, but every big-news disaster turns out to be good news in the long run for the Phoenix real estate market. This was written on Tuesday, so the specific details are a little dated.

 
Phoenix has it’s problems, but they’re small compared to those in other cities

At BloodhoundBlog.com, we’re tracking the fires in San Diego County. Business is business, but a world-class disaster commands attention. Three of our fifteen contributors are in the fire zone. Two of the three have already been evacuated as I write this. Our hearts and prayers and donations go out to the victims of the blaze, even as we know that whatever we can do can never be enough.

But at the same time, we in the Valley of the Sun should take a moment to count our blessings.

As you approach Phoenix from California, you see them, one after another, vast warehouses, acres in extent. The space should really be measured in cubic feet, but the numbers would quickly become astronomical.

Why are they there? Because Phoenix is the perfect place in North America to build trans-shipment warehouses. No winter, no hurricanes, no earthquakes, no mudslides, no uncontrolled fires. We do have a brutal summer heat, but that’s just so much hot air.

For these same reasons, Phoenix is an increasingly popular destination for server farms and colocation facilities. Critical commercial data must be stored or mirrored in places where it won’t be lost to acts of god or other freak events. Phoenix has a talented workforce, great air and ground transportation, a first-rate communications infrastructure and a tremendous surplus of electrical power. Major companies and major airlines park their data and their airplanes here because they know they’ll be safe.

Plus which, Phoenix is sunny all the time and it’s a great place to raise kids. We don’t necessarily think about everything when picking a place to live, but, as life expectancies increase, what we might call the marginal futility of death by accident soars. Your kids could live a lot longer than you will, and this is why we pursue safety wherever we can.

Here’s the bottom line: Right now the real estate market is slow, but Phoenix is an increasingly attractive place to live. We’re not without problems, but our problems are nothing compared to the scenes of despair we see on the news.

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