Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Home Ownership and Community Development

After posting this article to my other blog, I wondered how we might apply the discussion to Laveen.  I think that homeowners' intent to stay put can be a powerful mechanism to creating a more vibrant community -- especially when looking at residential regions lacking in a strong daytime population, such as ours (nearby, yes, but not exactly in our village).  There was an article recently, in the Las Vegas Sun, which highlighted the fact that 40% of the Las Vegas area's residents want to move out of the area, and the housing numbers don't appear to demonstrate that there are many people willing to replace that kind of exodus of residents.

Anecdotally, it seems that we're in a much better position than the likes of Las Vegas (and even other areas of Phoenix), having recently voted to grant our school districts an override (investing in our future) and judging by the relative stability of our housing market at the moment -- not to mention the renewed interest in retail and a few other green shoots.  But I would love to challenge this assumption with a survey.... maybe on the Laveen group's facebook page?  Also, what are your thoughts?  Please comment.

1 comment:

PTB said...

FYI, it appears from our Facebook survey that people are overwhelmingly committed to life in Laveen. Granted, this isn't a representative sample set (and we know plenty of people are moving away), but I think it highlights that our community has what it takes to attract committed residents. This perhaps explains our ongoing developments in retail and construction activity. And I definitely feel confident that all these positive indicators warrant a more in-depth look.