Under Arizona SB 1413, people living outside shelters would have their homes dismantled - the bill requires cities and towns to tear down homeless encampments and charge the person or people living there with trespassing if they’re on private property. Read more»

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a GOP-backed bill that sought to eliminate the rental tax in what Republican lawmakers called an attempt to mitigate rising inflation and housing costs, yet likely would not have benefited renters and was potentially catastrophic for municipalities. Read more»

Republican lawmakers are looking to slash food and rental taxes in a bid to help Arizonans deal with spiking inflation, but city officials warn that doing so won’t help those in need — and will actually increase costs elsewhere. Read more»

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has opened an investigation into whether rent-setting software made by a Texas-based real estate tech company is facilitating collusion among landlords and allowing property managers to illegally coordinate their pricing. Read more»

Housing costs, including rental prices, are on the path to stabilizing but evidence of this won’t show up in inflation measures anytime soon, economists say. Read more»

A U.S. Senate committee is asked the Federal Trade Commission to review whether the rent-setting software from Texas-based property tech company RealPage violates antitrust laws by helping big landlords operate as a cartel to push rents above competitive levels in some markets. Read more»

Renters filed a lawsuit this week alleging that RealPage -a company that makes price-setting software for apartments - and nine of the nation’s biggest property managers formed a cartel to artificially inflate rents in violation of federal law. Read more»

Unemployed Workers United, along with other social advocacy groups, hosted a public forum as a call for affordable housing reform in Arizona, as the state is currently facing a shortage of 270,000 homes and where rent prices exceed a reasonable share of the typical person’s income. Read more»

Most people move during the spring and summer months, but many would-be movers stayed put this May and June amid higher interest rates and rising rents, and exurbs saw more people move in as other areas experienced an outflow. Read more»

Rents have risen 14 percent on average over the last year, and that’s becoming a huge problem for college students faced with spiraling off-campus housing costs. It’s also spilling over into long waiting lists for less-expensive on-campus dorms. Read more»

Witnesses in a Tuesday hearing detailed to a Senate committee how investors and stagnant wages are driving an eviction and housing crisis across the U.S., with families priced out of buying homes and rents increasing faster than they ever have on record. Read more»

Investors bought nearly a quarter of U.S. single-family homes that sold last year, often driving up rents for suburban families in the process - with investors buying 31% of single-family homes in Arizona during 2021, a 76% change from 2020. Read more»

With Arizona law tilted firmly in favor of Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms, cities and towns looking to stop the negative effects of homes in quiet neighborhoods being rented out as “party houses” are increasingly finding their hands tied. Read more»

The Arizona Attorney General says that the most onerous parts of an ordinance passed earlier this year by the town of Paradise Valley aimed at reining in “party house” Airbnbs conflict with existing state law, putting $1.6 million of the town’s state shared revenue in limbo. Read more»

In the year after the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, moves out of city centers increased from the year before, as did moves into rural and suburban areas - but the trend slowed considerably during the second year of the pandemic. Read more»