As residents of Prescott, Arizona, it doesn’t take one in the Real Estate industry to tell you how much our town has grown over the last few years. Prescott’s current annual growth rate in population is 2% per year. Alongside the growth rate of our town, is the growth rate of the housing market here. If you’re a homeowner, looking to buy or sell a home, or even a renter, you know how booming the market is in our “small” town right now.
According to the realtor app Zillow, In May of 2011, the median listing price on a home in Prescott was $295,000. In May of 2018, the median listing price on a home in Prescott was $443,000 (zillow.com).That’s a jump in median sold home prices of 34% in just seven short years, which goes to show just how much we are growing!
Though there are a few articles on Prescott’s growth and the housing market growth, as a company with over 50 years of collective Real Estate experience and knowledge under our belts, here are some of the reasons we believe to be driving our expansion:
- The number one reason the market has grown so much and so fast, in our opinion, is the mass exodus of California. Many people are leaving California to escape the congestion, property prices, and politics. This has caused the market to grow rapidly because buyers sell their home’s in California and can then afford to pay cash for a home here in Prescott, or are willing to pay more because the houses here are still a lot cheaper than in California. On top of Californians relocating here, we also have people from Phoenix and even Vegas moving here to escape the heat and congestion of city life.
- In March of 2018, Prescott ranked number 9 on Time Magazine’s “Happiest and Healthiest Cities” (time.com). This isn’t the first time Prescott has been mentioned in a major magazine as an amazing place to live. What does this mean? That Prescott is becoming more well known and more publicized as a great place to move to, live, and retire. This brings in more tourists and more new residents every year.
- Four mild seasons is yet another reason people are attracted to Prescott. We get warm summers, good rains, an orange and yellow picturesque fall, a mild winter with moderate snowfall, and a beautiful spring. Coming from places with harsh winters or summers, or not very much seasonal change at all, this is a huge draw for people looking to relocate.
- Lastly, Prescott has appeal! We have that quaint small town feel while still being large enough to have good places to eat and entertainment in the town such as live music, theaters, and fun events. We have an open, spacious feel with the national forests surrounding us, numerous lakes and trails to enjoy, and a sprawling city not gridlocked by overpopulation.
While it’s hard for those who’ve lived in Prescott for years to see their home changing with the influx of new resident’s – more shopping centers and homes, higher costs of living, more traffic and less available parking, and a once small town that doesn’t feel quite so small anymore – can we really blame those moving here? Amazing outdoor living, festive and fun summer months and holidays, low crime rates, good schools, great retirement communities, and so much more. Like it or not, Prescott is captivating! What brought so many of us here years ago is continuing to bring people here today, and as far as we can tell, it’s not going to stop any time soon.