Homeowners and renters in Arizona, a critical swing state for the 2024 presidential election, are concerned over the increasingly difficult prospect of owning a home, according to a recent report.
"These prices are just wild," Eren Mendoza, an Arizona resident, told The New York Times. "It’s pretty much all anybody talks about."
Mendoza, who lives with her partner, Devon Lawrence, said that even two incomes aren't enough to support life in Arizona. "The fact that a dual income can’t support us is insanity," she said.
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There are many couples and aspiring homeowners like Mendoza and Lawrence in Arizona, The Times reported, which may influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
Difficulties over finding affordable housing in the Phoenix area persist despite "$60 billion in investments in factories that make advanced computer chips — a Biden administration talking point."
A Fox News poll released on March 27 found that over half of voters feel they're worse off today than in 2020. The poll also found that 73% of voters rate the economy negatively, which is a slight improvement compared to May 2023, when 83% of voters rated the economy negatively. Thirty-eight percent approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, while 61% disapprove, the poll found.
"Since 2010, the number of rental properties available for $1,000 or less in greater Phoenix has declined 86 percent, according to the Maricopa Association of Governments, a regional planning agency," The Times reported. "The number of homes selling for $300,000 or less dropped 73 percent."
For Arizonans making "$45,000 to $90,000 a year," buying a house is extremely difficult, which "makes people feel like the economy is crummy," Carin Nguyen Real Estate agent Nathan Claiborn told The Times. "Housing affordability is a psychological drain for everyone."
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Some housing experts are claiming that the push for affordable housing is being opposed by a "vocal minority."
"The vocal minority in many communities are creating this avalanche of NIMBY-ism," Urban Land Institute Arizona District Council executive director Debra Z. Sydenham. "We are talking about providing homes for firefighters, for teachers, for nurses, for police officers. They view it as, ‘No, you’re providing homes for drug addicts.’"
Another couple said that despite their high combined salary of roughly "$200,000 a year," they are still having trouble finding housing.
"We have great jobs," Alexandra McDaniel, who works in Arizona near her fiancé, Cameron Smith, said. "We’re doing exactly what we were told to do, and it doesn’t work."
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Fox Business' Mills Hayes and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
