Is Historic Phoenix Still Affordable to Buy Into?

Years ago while attending college at California State University at Sacramento, I would take the route that led me 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 their interiors with lights on through the ornate gothic and casement windows, giving that picturesque ambiance like a Thomas Kinkade painting. After driving through the historic rows of homes, I would stop by cool little restaurants nearby, and I especially loved the dessert place that would tempt passersby with their multi-layered cakes on spinning display cases in the shop front window. The feeling of visiting these places and driving through the neighborhoods was magical. At the time I was too young and unprepared to own a home yet, but I remember thinking that was my dream. There was something about a neighborhood like that you couldn't fake. It was built slowly, with careful precision, artisanship and built by people who cared that it would last for generations to come.

When I moved to Arizona many years later and discovered Phoenix's historic districts, they too gave me that same nostalgic feeling. Diverse architecture, lush landscaping, that same soul, and honestly, a story that goes back even further than I expected.

I was surprised to learn how rich the history was in Arizona. A lot of the Historic Phoenix neighborhoods actually grew up along Phoenix's old trolley lines, similar to San Francisco. 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.

These neighborhoods have stood the test of time. They made it through World Wars, the Depression, and even the great Recession of 2008. Why? Because there is rich history here and quality construction worth preserving and generations of families that had stewarded the homes and community. In the 1980s many of the neighborhoods began to suffer disrepair due to the aging structures so the State of Arizona Historic Preservation Office, the City of Phoenix and the homeowners organized and collaborated to revitalize the neighborhoods that told Phoenix's story. Neighborhood coalitions and associations were formed and each went through the rigorous and time-consuming process of having their neighborhoods placed on the National Register of Historic Places. With that came the protections and the designations needed in order to apply for various state and federal grants through the Heritage Funds. During this time the City of Phoenix created the Office of Historic Preservation and created overlay maps that would also provide an increased layer of protection for the historic neighborhoods and encourage preservation. Residents spent thousands of their hard earned dollars to invest in preservation efforts and were also rewarded with exterior rehabilitation grants that came with the promise of preserving these communities. These grants still exist today.

So it bothers me when I hear people write off historic Phoenix as something only "wealthy buyers" can afford. These were hard working blue collar individuals and families that collaborated with the City to revitalize the historic communities so that they would be here for future generations to enjoy. Home value appreciation is cyclical and a natural occurrence in real estate, and because historic communities offer so much to the economic health of a city, they too have increased in value, but they are hardly unaffordable. Let's take a closer look at both the history and the data that backs me up on this.

Here's where several of these districts land against Phoenix's citywide median sold price of $460,000 right now. The Willo Historic District, the largest historic district of the 36, has entry-level homes starting around $400,000, below that median. Garfield, just east of Roosevelt Row, has homes offered 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 the Arizona State Fairgrounds, has averaged $373,737 over the past year, well below the median average. And Woodland Historic District, for all its history, remains one of the most affordable entry points into historic Phoenix, still full of fixer-uppers just waiting on someone patient enough to bring them back.

Yes, some districts carry a higher premium. Encanto-Palmcroft, Alvarado, and Ashland Place tend to lean luxury with a median around $700,000, due to their larger lot sizes and square footage. But there are fabulous historic districts like Coronado and Fair View which have experienced both increased value and saw their median actually dip a bit over the past year. Clearly there are more affordable historic districts. 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. Include the grants and other resources and incentives available and that becomes an opportunity showing that historic Phoenix homeownership is still within reach. You don't have to choose between affordable and beautiful. You can have both, and sometimes you just do a little of the beautifying yourself. Of course owning a historic home does come with rules, processes, and guidelines when it comes to making upgrades and changes, but that is an article for another time.

Reminiscing of those drives through the historic Sacramento neighborhoods, the feeling those old streets gave me before I even knew what I wanted to do with my life, well, that dream eventually became real for me too. As a historic homeowner myself, I now 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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