Rolodex of Realtors Catherine Reagor writes advertiser-approved fluff-piece, reader comments are telling

R-O-R-Reagor wrote this piece, which I'm not going to waste your time with. She doesn't mention that the price data is 100% BS and unreliable as builders don't report the value of incentives in final price, and even she knows the cash-back fraud craze that took over Phoenix (that doesn't get subtracted from selling price). But she forgets to mention that.

Phoenix housing prices drop, but freefall not expected

But more importantly, read through the reader comments - and add your own. There are two camps -

1) Desperate Homedebtors and ramen-eating REIC that want the Arizona Republic to stop with any reporting on housing conditions - the "you're ruining it for everyone" crowd

2) Bitter Renters or concerned citizens who just want the Arizona Republic to report the truth.

What people are forgetting is that Arizona is one of the top 3 markets for the risky interest-only option-arm loans, almost all of which convert this year. Convert means the payments at least double or even triple, meaning tons of people who were already living paycheck-to-paycheck will go into foreclosure. Nothing crashes a market like a high foreclosure rate, and there's no escaping it here. - Frank1927

Did you see one builder offering $142,000 discount. Most house sit on the market for 3 to 6 months and all have had "Reduced" added to the sign and still don't sell. The foreclosuers are building up. The ARMs and Sub prime loans are coming home to roost. The Cash Back deals are headed for a little jail time. I look for our area to have what Denver had last year, 19,000 repos. If you have the cash in hand you can buy at a big dicount. I have seen about 4 of these bust in the USA,and it isn't fun. From all I hear and read it will be September or October before any thing picks up. - Ben5239

I am a 20 year veteran Phoenix Realtor, with over 1000 sales, and here is my take on the current and near future residential market in Maricopa County. APOCOLYPSE NOW baby! I don't buy into the rosy soft landing theory. The story will be far uglier than even the Republic can paint. Home prices will drop. 3 factors effect real estate: wages, home prices, and interest rates...nothing else! Are your wages going up?..........NO. Are mortgage rates declining?.....NO. Are home prices declining?.......YES. We have a huge supply of over-priced homes that will take years to work through. - charles8643

Yes the sky is falling. How can one tell? Simple. There are at least 5 houses for sale in about every neighborhood, and not one is selling for their asking price or has been sitting around for ages. Anyone who disputes this is either related to the real-estate industry, or just plain blind. Too much speculation happening the last few years.. payback time awaits. - Cards Fan

California prices...Arizona wages... The market is WAY over-valued and overbuilt. You can spend 500k on a nice place in Phoenix or you can spend 500k on an equally nice place in San Diego where wages are at least 10-15% more than they are here. People will wake up..Prices will fall... anyone 'round here in the late 80s? - ScottsdaleNative

In my opinion...the articles regarding real estate -across the board- in the Republic are an embarassment to the professional journalism industry. Not only are they not accurate, they also induce the general public into notions that the sky is falling. The articles are hidious, get someone who knows something about real estate to write the @#$%& articles, and forget the capitalist crap about selling papers and tell the truth about the market. - rich4311