Is Historic Phoenix Still Affordable to Buy Into?

Years ago while attending college at California State University at Sacramento, I used to go out of my way just to drive through the Fabulous Forties Historic Neighborhood in East Sacramento. Big beautiful houses, Tudors and Colonial Revivals with lush, mature landscaping that had been growing for decades. Many of the homes would showcase themselves with lights on through the ornate gothic and casement windows, giving that picturesque ambiance like a Thomas Kinkade painting. After driving through I would stop at the cool little restaurants nearby, and I especially remember a dessert place that would showcase their multi-layered cakes. I didn't own a home yet myself, but I remember thinking there was something about a neighborhood like that you couldn't fake. It had to be built slowly, by people who cared.

When I moved to Arizona, Phoenix's historic districts gave me that same feeling. Different architecture, same soul, and honestly, a story that goes back even further than I expected.

So it bothers me when I hear people write off historic Phoenix as something only wealthy buyers can afford. I don't think that's true, and both the history and the numbers back me up.

A lot of these neighborhoods actually grew up along Phoenix's old trolley lines. In the early 1900s, the Phoenix Railway Company ran streetcar service north from Van Buren Street, and the city grew right along with it. Roosevelt was the first streetcar suburb, and as the 1920s rolled on, that same trolley line pushed development further north into Encanto-Palmcroft and Willo. But Woodland actually predates all of it. It was the first neighborhood built outside Phoenix's original townsite, with roots back to 1885, and it's home to the Eyrich House, one of the oldest buildings still standing in the city today. These aren't reproductions of old Phoenix. They are old Phoenix.

Here's where several of these districts land against Phoenix's citywide median sold price of $460,000 right now. Willo has entry-level homes starting around $400,000, below that median. Garfield, just east of Roosevelt Row, has new construction between $300,000 and $400,000 as the neighborhood comes back to life. Oakland Historic District, tucked next to the State Capitol, is one of the most affordable historic pockets in the city, I've seen character homes there list around $389,000. Villa Verde, a small district of English Cottage-style homes near Downtown, has averaged $373,737 over the past year. And Woodland, for all its history, remains one of the most affordable entry points into historic Phoenix, still full of fixer-uppers waiting on someone patient enough to bring them back.

Yes, some districts carry a premium. Encanto-Palmcroft leans luxury. Even Coronado, which trends higher, saw its median actually drop 21.5% over the past year. That's not a market pricing people out. That's a market with real room in it if you know where to look.

And if a home needs work, that's not a dealbreaker. An FHA 203(k) loan lets you finance the purchase and the renovation in one mortgage, as little as 3.5% down. You don't have to choose between affordable and beautiful. Sometimes you just do a little of the beautifying yourself.

Remember, owning a home in a Historic District comes with rules to follow when making changes, but that's an article for another day!

I think about those drives out of my way sometimes, the feeling those old streets gave me before I even knew what I wanted to do with my life. That dream eventually became real for me too. I'm proud to say I'm a historic homeowner myself now, so I'm not just selling this feeling, I'm living it. I get to spend my career helping people find that same feeling here in Phoenix, and it's still within reach for a lot more buyers than the headlines suggest. If you've been told historic Phoenix is out of your range, I'd love to show you otherwise.

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