Recent News & Blog Entries

East Valley Tribune

The booming Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport has unveiled a $1.4 billion plan for a new passenger terminal that could open as soon as 5 years from now and eventually expand to 60 gates.

The airport is anticipating that rapid growth will continue with its focus on low-cost air travel, and that its continuously-expanding temporary terminal will soon reach capacity.

Gateway served almost 1 million passengers last year and is on track to handle 1.3 million this year.

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Nick Timiraos
The Wall Street Journal

As home prices continue to drop in most cities, a nascent real-estate rebound here holds lessons for the rest of the country.

This sprawling desert metropolis was one of the hardest hit housing markets during the bust. Phoenix home prices declined 55% from 2006 through the end of 2011, and Arizona's foreclosure rate jumped to No. 3 in the nation in 2009. Hundreds of thousands of homeowners are underwater, meaning they owe more than their homes are worth.

Now real-estate economists across the country are studying an early but surprisingly broad Phoenix turnaround.

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David Syndiongco
Phoenix Business Journal

After once being an international high-flyer, Phoenix is beginning a steady crawl towards recovery from the depths of the recession in terms of global economic growth, according to a new global report by the Brookings Institution.

Booking’s Global MetroMonitor report, released today, placed Phoenix in the No. 143 spot among 200 growing worldwide metropolitan areas, analyzing and comparing the Valley’s employment, income, gross domestic product and population rates.

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Jan Buchholtz
Phoenix Business Journal

New home closings in metro Phoenix increased in December, as did the number of building permits pulled by home builders. That’s according to new data provided by Valley-based RL Brown Reports.

There were 855 new home closings in December as compared with 653 a year ago, or a 31 percent increase. There were 492 residential building permits pulled as compared with 383 a year ago -- a 28 percent increase. By comparison, resales were down with 7,707 recorded in December as compared with 7,949 in December 2010.

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Adam Kress
Phoenix Business Journal

Arizona ranked No. 8 in the nation for population growth over the past year, according to newly released data from the U.S. Cenus Bureau.

Arizona added 90,000 residents between April 1, 2010, and July 1, 2011. That equates to a 1.42 percent growth rate. Both in raw numbers and percentage terms, Arizona ranked eighth for growth.

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J. Craig Anderson
The Arizona Republic

Avatar Holdings, a publicly traded community developer and homebuilder based in Coral Gables, Fla., said it has closed on the purchase of a 187-acre parcel in the Estrella master-planned community in Goodyear for $6 million.

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