Councilmember Bill Stipp discusses how apartments and single-family rentals play a role in the city and talks about how these communities are not like the apartments of old. Plus, hear from a resident who lives in a single-family rental as he shares his experiences about renting in Goodyear.
Councilmember Bill Stipp discusses how apartments and single-family rentals play a role in the city and talks about how these communities are not like the apartments of old. Plus, hear from a resident who lives in a single-family rental as he shares his experiences about renting in Goodyear.
Coming up on this episode of Growing Goodyear.
Councilmember Bill Stipp:We aren't trying to solve the housing problem. But we are part of the solution and Goodyear is a great place to live. And I think people are trying to take advantage of that. By a multifamily development coming in, we're allowing more people to experience that. And by the way, they're paying their way through that.
Tammy Vo:Welcome to Growing Goodyear. I'm Tammy Vo with the city of Goodyear and with me is Jordan Byrd.
Jordan Byrd:Hey Tammy, what's going on?
Tammy Vo:Hey, Jordan, you know, I've been thinking about this topic we're talking about today. And it's it's really just such a huge topic when we put something out, for example, on social media, and it could be about something completely different. There's always a comment and a thought from our residents about the topic of housing, specifically, apartments in Goodyear, wouldn't you say?
Jordan Byrd:Well, yeah, and especially right now, because not only in Goodyear, but all of Arizona really the entire country. Housing is a major issue right now not only for people looking to buy, people looking to sell, but those that are also looking for apartment or single family rentals as
Tammy Vo:Right now, Goodyear is going through a really well. interesting time period. I think housing is growing, businesses are growing, people are coming here. Every day we get new residents in the city.
Jordan Byrd:Yeah. And the other thing too, that I have found fascinating about apartments or single family rentals, specific to Goodyear. It is not the apartments of old you know, I think a lot of us have lived in an apartment at one point or another in our lives. And we think of it as you know, just cookie cutter, bare essentials. That's not really what these complexes and communities are like nowadays, specifically here in Goodyear.
Tammy Vo:Do you remember your first apartment?
Jordan Byrd:Oh, yeah, I mean, talk about a dump. I can relate. The one thing I will say that was pretty sweet about my first apartment was and I had never seen this before, since or before that. I had a sink in my bedroom.
Tammy Vo:Oh, yeah, I have that too. Actually. So it was like a one and a third bathroom apartment where I had never seen that before. I'm like, Why do I need a sink right in the master bedroom and no other bathroom facilities along Well, I think I have something that tops that. My with it? first apartment, the walls were so thin that the woman who lives next door would wake up every morning at five in the morning and slap her cheeks like that so loud that I could hear it through the walls and it would wake me up at five in the morning. The point is apartments have come a long way, especially here in Goodyear. So we're going to talk about that today. We're going to check in with Goodyear city councilmember Bill Stipp about how apartments and single family rentals have come to Goodyear and what it kind of means for our residents and some of the things he's hearing from our residents out there and the message that we want to get across to them today about this topic.
Jordan Byrd:And then after that we're going to catch up with a Goodyear apartment renter and hear his story on why renting was the best option for him and his family here in Goodyear.
Tammy Vo:So let's go ahead and check in with councilmember Stipp for our Fast Five. If you could time travel. Would you go into the future or back into the past?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:I would say back into the past. I love history.
Jordan Byrd:Are you more of a morning person or a night owl?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Absolutely night owl. If I didn't have to wake up until noon, I wouldn't.
Tammy Vo:Where's your favorite place that you visited on vacation?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Probably Venice. I think Venice. I had a great time in Switzerland too but because the weather was better it's going to be Venice.
Jordan Byrd:What is your most favorite thing to eat? Or what is your most favorite style of cuisine?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Probably Italian.
Tammy Vo:Tell us about one thing that's on your bucket list that you haven't accomplished yet but want to?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:I want to spend one night in every one of the 50 states and I have less than 10 left.
Tammy Vo:So we're talking today about what I think we know is pretty hot topic in Goodyear. I was gonna say apartments...
Councilmember Bill Stipp:No, say apartments.
Tammy Vo:Apartments is what you know a lot of people know it as but multifamily housing is something a term we use a lot. What is, let's just start off with that, what's the difference between apartments and multifamily?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:So I think a lot of people think about apartments they think of what we today call a walk up. So two story, three story four story, they're stacked on top of one another. They're just multiple story everybody kind of crammed together a bunch of shared walls shared ceilings...
Tammy Vo:Reminds me of college, actually.
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Very much so and I even said at a council meeting one night to some folks, the apartments that are being built today are not the apartments that they or I lived in back in the 70s or 80s. I don't like to use the word apartment because that's what we, that's what we think about. What's being built today is really this multifamily concept which is multiple families living in the same geographic area. May not necessarily have attached walls or ceiling. So we have a lot of those single story or what we call single family rentals. So they're they're small, potted together, they're very, very close. That's really what multifamily is.
Jordan Byrd:I think that's what's interesting about the single family rental is that the amenities that these places have it, some of these facilities have backyards and pet doors, it really is a little home for these people that are renting in the single family rentals.
Councilmember Bill Stipp:It really is. And I think that is what's making them very attractive to the modern renter today. I think back to that first apartment that I lived in with my wife, it was a garden style apartment. So it was three feet underground, the windows were at the grade level, the laundry building was a quarter mile away. So if you wanted to do, when we were doing laundry, it was haul your dirty clothes, across the courtyard into the building. That's not what these buildings are like anymore, the units have their own washer and dryer in them. And so they're making them more homey. And really, the amenities are what's making a lot of these units very attractive. Many of the folks that are living in these places are choosing to live there. That's different than, okay, I want to move out of my parents house, your first place is this apartment, and then from there, then I go into a house. That was the kind of the traditional way of going, but today, people are choosing to live in this multifamily environment. If I get tired of it, or I decide I want to change or my job is pretty fluid, I just wait for my lease to be up and I go.
Tammy Vo:That all sounds amazing. I mean, I'd love to live in one of those units you described. But my question then is why do we hear a lot of resistance around the topic of quote, apartments or multifamily?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:I think part of it is if you're not living and breathing this development discussion, like we do on council, and you know what you think, you know, which was what your experience was, in the past, we all have had those experiences where all the trouble comes from the people who live in the apartments or all the trouble...
Tammy Vo:And the crime...
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Yeah, it's all that negativity that comes from that. What we are experiencing here is rents that are quite high, and amenities that are really exceptional, which demand a higher rent. And the people that are living there are demanding a higher quality of neighbor. So it's different. The other part of that too is the negativity comes from well, they're not paying their fair share. People think that while a renter, they're not buying into the community, I've heard that a number of times. When in fact as a renter, you are buying into the community. Every apartment, or individual unit that is rented pays sales tax on that on that rent. And if you do the math on that, for every single unit, at two and a half percent tax, that equates to more than a typical single family home pays in they're Goodyear city tax per year.
Tammy Vo:And that money goes toward...
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Goes toward everything. So we fund our police and fire with that, we fund our library, we fund our parks programs, we fund streets, we fund everything. So anything that any resident would use is funded with that. And the old connotation was well, renters are here for free. And that's just simply not the case where those renters are paying their fair share, to be part of the community and their, and we really, I think, take a look at that and say you're not just here temporarily. You are a resident of Goodyear. So welcome to the Rec Center, welcome to, you know all of the other amenities that we offer as as a city.
Jordan Byrd:Well, the other thing too about the buy in on the community is even if you take the tax and the contributions that these renters are bringing to the city on that level, just the fact that they're in the city, they're living here, they're going to local restaurants, they're going to local shops, that is a form in itself of being a part of the community and buying into the community. Right?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:It certainly is. And that that's the other side of this of this equation is when restauranteurs and shop, large commercial shops are looking at where do we open our next store? Where do we open our next restaurant, they are looking at not only total population, but they're looking at daytime population, and the daytime population comes from the businesses and the jobs that we've created. And some of that demand for the of the jobs that we've created now fills these multifamily units. So one feeds the other. They're not independent of one another. And then you increase that density, that density is very attractive to those commercial users. So that feeds into okay, I can open the larger restaurant instead of the smaller footprint.
Tammy Vo:It almost seems like these are the growing pains that go along with a city like Goodyear transitioning from being maybe smaller at one time to now where we're over 100,000 residents, with the ninth fastest growing city in the nation. I mean, is this where we are supposed to be?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:I think we struggled with that not really understanding where we fit. So we've been working with, you know, the city manager and the staff. So, in 2015, the city of Goodyear had about 9% of multifamily homes. In 2021, that number is really only 13%. Now, from a percentage basis, you're saying, well, that's only 4%. When you look at the growth in population, that's pretty significant. But 4% multifamily still isn't still isn't very high. We're projected in 2023, in this coming year, that will end up being about 18% with multifamily. When you look across the Valley, the larger communities, Peoria, Mesa, Chandler, Tempe, there anywhere between 15 and 50%. Now the city of Tempe has 50% of their residential units is rental. Tempe is a college town, so I would expect that most of their residents are, so if you take Tempe out of that mix, and you look at at city like Chandler, who we always aspire to be that tech hub and that component, Chandler is at 27%. So even at our 18, we're still nowhere near what the city of Chandler is, and the city of Mesa, which is very, very large, they're over four or 500,000 people there at 25%. So I don't think Goodyear aspires to be 25% multifamily, but certainly even at our 18, we're about where we should be.
Jordan Byrd:People who are listening to this might be saying, well, you know, if the numbers need to increase, that percentage needs to increase, the city of Goodyear just needs to build more multifamily housing. But that's not really how the process works. When it comes to building these types of communities, how does that process actually play out?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:That's a great question. A lot of residents think that we control what goes on on each parcel. It's really the landowner who decides and we set out the general plan, which we do every 10 years, the general plan kind of lays out what we want to do from development perspective, where do we want the commercial or the industrial use? Where do we want multifamily, where we want to concentrate just single family and you don't build just corridors of those things. So you move from single family to this industrial, what we refer to as a buffer is multifamily. The other thing that we're both blessed and cursed with is we have the departure zone from Luke Air Force Base. So that has created for us a very large swath of land on our west side, that prohibits any residential, and I mean, zero residential development in that area. So that means we have all industrial in those areas, and some of it there is no building whatsoever. If you have industrial in that huge swath, and you want to buffer that industrial from the single family you put in multifamily. The city doesn't decide that we decide generally what we want to see in there, then it's up to each individual landowner to decide how they move forward.
Tammy Vo:Jobs have been a big focus and priority for council in Goodyear. I mean, we've been used to traditionally a lot of people driving out of the city to other parts of the Valley to work and then you come back and you go to sleep in your home in Goodyear. That's not what we want.
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Right. I've mentioned earlier daytime population. And that's awesome. You look back over the last five years or so we've created almost 10,000 jobs. We want those 10,000 people to stay here. We don't want them to live somewhere else and then come in this way. So we want to benefit from those 10,000 people residing here, because then they'll go to our shops and they'll go to our restaurants etc.
Tammy Vo:But that also means the demand for housing options must go up.
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Yeah, and again, we go back to what are the common multifamily dweller now, it used to be a graduated college, I went into an apartment and I moved into a house. So now people are renting out of lifestyle choice. This is what we want. My wife and I made that lifestyle choice. People now are having to rent out of necessity because they can't afford to buy. And that is that's a huge economic challenge for a lot of folks. The house that used to cost 250,000 now costs 500,000, so a $25,000 downpayment for a 10% down is now 50,000.
Tammy Vo:Oh my goodness.
Councilmember Bill Stipp:So who's got that? They've got the income to support it, they just don't have the money saved up. So how do we fix that? We provide them a luxury place to live, or their own little individual rental unit, and hope that they're able to save in some other capacity to move into what we all consider that traditional single family home.
Jordan Byrd:It's so interesting to hear this because so many of these topics individually are high priorities on residents mind, housing, jobs, restaurants, entertainment, shopping, and we and I'm guilty of this myself, we all sometimes think of that as individual things. But it's really just a giant lifecycle, and one feeds the other. And when you think about it, in that context, it's almost like this self sustaining ecosystem here in Goodyear that everything is feeding each other for the prosperity of the future.
Councilmember Bill Stipp:That's the key to what community really means. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, that suburbs that were built right after World War II. So all the GIs came back, they got money from from the government, and a lot of small homes were built. And they were great. Two bedroom, one bath, 900 square foot homes, but they were single family homes, people could live in, the GIs could live, they could start their families and move on. And a lot of communities were kind of built, particularly the suburbs of Chicago, were kind of built out that way. But then you ended up with the term bedroom community. Well, all people did was sleep there, they drove into the city to go to work or they drove closer to the city to work. And when we moved out here in 2001, Goodyear was pretty predominantly a bedroom community. Everybody went somewhere else to work. And I think the city councils over the years, and particularly the last 10 that I've been on council, we've really tried to change that. Let's create opportunities here for people to live and work here. And sure they're not jobs that necessarily everybody works at, not everybody works at an Amazon facility or not everybody works in a in a distribution or high tech manufacturing, like we've got. But we've also diversified that. And I think that's the other key to this. We didn't just stick with one type of market. We've got advanced manufacturing, we've got internet fulfillment, we've got distribution, we've got data centers, so we've got a number of different types of, you know, uses here to make us that well rounded.
Tammy Vo:So if you look into your crystal ball, 10, 20 years into the future here in Goodyear, what mix of that single family homes to multifamily housing, what kind of mix of that do you see in the future, being the just the perfect balance for this city?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:I think when you end up about 20% multifamily, 80%, single family, when you talk about residential options, you're probably in the right quantity of mix. You don't have too many, you're not a complete rental community. But you're also not a complete, owner occupied type of community. One of the things that we've done very, very well as we've also diversified our revenue sources. A lot of communities, and if you came from back east, most everybody, everything is reliant upon property tax. So property taxes are huge. They're $8,000,$10,000 $15,000 a year in property tax. And that's funds everything. And sales tax is very low and, or in some cases non existent. The state of Arizona and Goodyear in particular, we've looked to diversify that. We've got this rental tax for each rental unit, whether it's a traditional multifamily or it's your next door neighbor who rents their house, that tax is paid. So we've got a pretty broad spectrum of revenue sources that we don't have to go to the homeowners and say, Hey, we need to build another fire station so, guess what, we're going to touch your tax rate and we're going to we're going to move it up because we need to build that fire station or we need to add another squad of police. Going back to the tax, to the to the homeowners we don't have to do that because we we have all these other options. So that 80/20 split really gets us much closer there.
Tammy Vo:Let's talk about crime at apartments, multifamily. What are we seeing in Goodyear in terms of of crime?
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Another one of the big myths, misconceptions is apartments bring crime or they drive my property value down. So let's start with the property value. Single Family full cash value, so what our homes are typically valued at from a tax perspective, we have seen over the last five years and it even goes the two years before that. But if you take the five year average, and that's when we've seen most of the multifamily built year has been in the last five years. We've seen an average of 6.6% increase in property values across the city. Even though we've had a huge influx of multifamily development, we have not seen a flattening at all of property value. So this correlation of multifamily brings down property values just as doesn't really hold up. The other side of that then is crime. Is what happens with crime. We've got our police department looking at specific Goodyear data. So we'll now have in about a year for now, we should have Goodyear specific data. Elliott Pollack, who's done a lot of study in how multifamily affects cities, has looked at this, when police data is analyzed on a per unit basis, the rate of police activity in apartment communities is no worse than in single family subdivisions, and in many cases, it is lower than single family areas.
Tammy Vo:Back to your point about density. You've got more people at basically an address or a plot, if you will. So it would make more sense that you might see more calls.
Councilmember Bill Stipp:You think you see more calls.
Tammy Vo:You think you see more calls.
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Yeah, so we have an apartment complex that's in five acres. And if the police are there three times, but they go through the same entrance, oh my gosh, there's a lot of police activity there. But if you take your neighborhood, and you take a five acre parcel of that neighborhood, but there are three or four ways in, you don't see where the police come in, and you don't see how many how much activity there is in your neighborhood. If you look on your Next Door app or anything, any of the social media points people are talking about, you know, my catalytic converter was stolen off my car or my my vehicle was broken into in the driveway, etc. That's all happening in single family neighborhoods. And it's not the people living in multifamily So much of this is just looking at the reality but thinking that are doing it. Crime is occurring everywhere. So, you know, we have to be careful about stereotyping folks from multifamily. I mentioned earlier, my wife and I moved into a multifamily complex after that, we were that typical baby about it a different way. I mean, as you were talking, I was boomer, kids left, big house, let's get out. We lived in one of Goodyear's luxury apartment complexes, and we did not experience a drop of crime in our complex ever. Everyone in reminded that when I first moved to the Phoenix area, I lived in there is paying 17, $1,800 a month. They're working hard for their money. A lot of the folks living there were airmen from from Luke and traveling doctors and nurses. And they're not an apartment and I was right by the main entrance right by the going to put up with the crime. office. I saw police there all the time. And in my mind, I'm thinking, Man, this is a rough neighborhood, I need to get out of here as pronto as I can. Never really thinking about it You're absolutely right in that. So I think there's just some that that apartment complex went a half block back from that main stereotypes that we need to break down when it comes to multifamily. And and I think a great summary is, look, there's there's no statistical basis or experience that we have here in Goodyear, that crime rates are up. We clearly know that it has office. And all I knew is that they were coming in through the not touched property values. We do know that it has increased our population numbers in general. We also know that there's a Valley wide population growth or explosion that it's main entrance. It's such a fascinating way of thinking occurring here and I said in an InFocus article a couple of months ago, we aren't trying to solve the housing problem. But we are part of the solution and Goodyear is a great place to about it that you know, just because you're seeing some live. And I think people are trying to take advantage of that. By a multifamily development coming in, we're allowing more people to experience that. And by the way, they're paying their way through that. activity there that doesn't necessarily correlate that this
Jordan Byrd:Councilman Stipp, thank you so much for taking some time, not only just having this conversation, but I think for myself and maybe a lot of other people who are going to listen to this, educating about the uses of rentals and is a rundown or mismanaged or dangerous part of town. multifamily housing here in Goodyear. This was very insightful conversation. Thank you so much for taking the time and joining us. We appreciate it.
Councilmember Bill Stipp:Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Jordan Byrd:At one point or another, a lot of us have lived in an apartment or a single family rental and for a lot of different reasons, Tammy. I know a lot of people like for myself it was you're fresh out of college, you need a new place to live. You need a cheap place to live. But that's not always the same situation. That's not always the same scenario. There are a lot of different reasons why people might be looking at apartments or single family rentals.
Tammy Vo:That's right. It's I don't think you could say that
Chris Jannise:So what brought us to Arizona was a job offer it's one type of person, its one type of demographic. We're that we had. I lost my job in June of 2020. And this was the really seeing a lot of people in different apartments in rentals in Goodyear who have a different story to tell. So we want to introduce you now to one gentleman who is now renting in Goodyear. His name is Chris Jannise. So Chris, tell us first about yourself and what what brought you to Arizona, more specifically Goodyear? only job offer we had in quite a few attempts. So we moved here officially October 29, of 2020.
Jordan Byrd:When you are going from living in the eastern part of the country and Louisiana to now all of a sudden you're picking things up, you're packing things up and you're heading to Arizona. What did you know about Arizona? What did you know about Goodyear before you guys made that move out here?
Chris Jannise:Outside of obviously, the obvious things about this part of the country, the Southwest is obviously drier, it's you know, warmer, obviously. As far as the Phoenix metro area, not a whole lot. We did our research when interviewing with the company I'm with now. And we chose Goodyear in the West Valley because it's more like home, I guess, in the sense of it's less crowded, because there's actually more people in the Phoenix metro that live in the entire state of Louisiana as a whole. So let's country come to town for us.
Tammy Vo:And you live in an apartment, right, Chris?
Chris Jannise:Yes, ma'am.
Tammy Vo:And I think sometimes when people think apartments and it kind of depends also on the city, you know, where you live and where you come from. Some people might think, you know, eight storys of stacked apartments, you know, no patio, door to door. That's not quite where you live in Goodyear, tell us about your place.
Chris Jannise:So where we are, and the reason why we chose it was although it is considered apartments, they are detached. The two bedroom and three bedroom apartments in this area are detached. So you have no one above you, below you or even on the sides. And it's awesome. It actually provides, you feel like it's more private, you feel it's more cozy. And it seems like it's just more individual.
Jordan Byrd:And one of the things specific about the complex that you live at, The Village at Harvard Crossing, is not only are they individual units, you're not in, you know, there's not 10-12 units all part of one building, you just alluded to that you have your own separate building. Along with that comes a backyard, which a lot of apartments when you hear about having a backyard, that's a nonstarter at best, you might get a patio or a balcony. What is that like to have certain amenities like a backyard or built in doggy doors at your facility, just speak a little bit about the amenities that are specifically at your complex that you live at.
Chris Jannise:So the amenities are really nice. The backyard especially gives you that at home feel, you can kind of do your own thing back there, barbecue, hangout. Also, obviously, we're having a pet that dog indoors very nice, especially whenever we leave during the day, if we choose to do so we just leave it open. And our dog Ryder goes in and out throughout the day. But it's just very nice to have a piece of astroturf. And the rest of it is rock and concrete. So it is really nice.
Tammy Vo:And you have a family, don't you?
Chris Jannise:Yes, ma'am. My wife and a son.
Tammy Vo:How old is your son?
Chris Jannise:He's nine years old.
Tammy Vo:Then what kinds of things does he get to do around there that he likes that's conducive to kids?
Chris Jannise:So swimming, obviously, is the biggest one. Something I was obviously I did a lot as a kid. Most of us did all that. And so swimming is a big thing, we're actually located not far from the pool, just a few feet so we can it's a very short walk. And we'll stay there few hours of time during the day. In the wintertime, it's real nice because I've never think I can ever swim in the wintertime, especially coming from Louisiana. But the pool is heated and there's a hot tub. And so it's very convenient and that you don't have to just stay indoors all the time. I know during the heat, it's a little different but it's just very nice to still be able to get out and do something. There's also a fire place, a fire pit out there outside the clubhouse.
Tammy Vo:Very nice. Jordan, I'll be over there tomorrow. Roast some marshmallows with you.
Jordan Byrd:You talk about convenience, of course you know
Chris Jannise:Especially for my wife, she really loves that. She likes the convenient especially. She does a lot of Instacart get the amenities within the complex itself has that but what about the area just around the complex itself. You guys are located near Pebble Creek Parkway and McDowell which is a lot of restaurants, a lot of shops. What does it mean to you and things delivered to the house. You don't have to leave to go your family to have that accessibility to places to eat and places to shop which are just right down the road from shopping so it's a big convenience with Safeway right where you guys live? there, Fry's, not much further, Walmart. Obviously some restaurants like you mentioned, there is Texas Roadhouse, a Mexican restaurant we like to go to a lot recently as a Arriba's. We just love going so places there right nearby, you don't have to drive too far in your home in no time.
Tammy Vo:Chris, when we talk about a city like Goodyear, and you coming here, would you have come to Goodyear, had you not found the place where you're living now, the apartment?
Chris Jannise:Probably not and the reason I'm saying that is the time that we had to sort of come around here and look and see where we want to be, because we did look at some rental homes and unknowingly to us, the demand for them was so high. And I say unknowingly, because we just obviously not living in a huge metro area, is things do go quickly. So we were thankful that we were able to find these apartments, we actually visit that area twice, just to make sure that that's where we want it to be, before we accepted any job offer here in Arizona.
Tammy Vo:And when it comes to buying a home, I know the sales market has been kind of crazy lately, would that even be an option right now for you and your family?
Chris Jannise:As of right now, no. That was something we've recently discussed, and just given the housing market being what it is, it's actually in my opinion, I think it's a little crazy. One of the homes we look for, to be honest with you, that amount of money you would pay back home in Louisiana would get you so much more. And what I mean by that is a much larger home, much larger area, much more land acreage, things like that, to get more bang for your buck. So I'm having a very hard time, sort of accepting the higher prices.
Jordan Byrd:You're not alone in that, I know there's a lot of people in this community, in the Valley, in the state that are experiencing the same things you and your family are as well. So with that in mind, if there's anyone out there listening to this, who might be in a similar situation to you and your family. Do you have any advice? Or is there any tips that you would give people in terms of, you know, you found a job that works for you and your family, but you're trying to find a place where you guys can call your own? What would you say to people who may or may not be contemplating the idea of living in an apartment complex or a single family rental?
Chris Jannise:I would tell them that definitely rent before you buy, especially an area like this, make sure this is where you want to be because of the pricing. And I do understand you can sell a home a lot quicker now. But at the same time, you also spending a lot of money. So personally, I would just rent before you buy, especially if you're new to the area, there's a lot of nice place to go to. Obviously the one we're at, I would definitely recommend it to many people that I know that they ever want to move out in this area.
Tammy Vo:And there's something to be said about I think the convenience of renting. Take it from me right now my air conditioning, Chris and Jordan, is out. I've complained to Jordan a couple times about this, it's hot, and man as a homeowner, there are responsibilities that come with it that sometimes are not fun. There's gotta be something about when you do rent, being able to call the office and the handyman and come and have them fix it within hopefully a day.
Chris Jannise:Well, that is a big convenience. Because from owning two homes prior I can promise you, that is a big convenience to just pick up the phone and say, hey, it's broken. Because you know that you're not having to foot the bill. And regardless of where you live, AC repairs just aren't cheap, no matter where you are.
Tammy Vo:We love having you and your family in the city. And we're glad you chose Goodyear.
Chris Jannise:Well, thank you we definitely love it here.
Tammy Vo:You know, Jordan is I think about this topic of housing in Goodyear. And I look at the growth of the city, it really becomes clear that Goodyear is really becoming this big city, and has changed so much from what it was maybe 20 years ago, when we really didn't have a lot of housing options that were different. You know, it was a lot of single family homes. Now we're in this time where we are just growing so fast. And there's this, this need to keep up with that growth.
Jordan Byrd:Well, and I don't think it's any coincidence that not only is there this greater need for housing that kind of goes hand in hand with this business push that Goodyear has had, more jobs coming to Goodyear means by proxy, there needs to be more places for those employees, hopefully, to be housed right here in Goodyear as they work in Goodyear. And so one of the things that was really fascinating during the conversation with councilmember Stipp and also our conversation with Chris, all of this is intertwined. You know, the more jobs we have here in Goodyear means that the more there's going to be a need for these type of housing options for those employees to live, work and play right here in Goodyear.
Tammy Vo:And that's key. I don't think people want to be sitting on the freeway, you know, two hours a day commuting out to the job. The idea is to stay here, work here and live here.
Jordan Byrd:And invest back into this Goodyear community not only by your rent or your mortgage, but also just being a patron of the other businesses that are here in Goodyear, the restaurants, the shops, the retail, all of that it just plays so hand in hand.
Tammy Vo:And one other thing, Jordan, in our last resident survey last year, nine out of 10 residents in Goodyear said that they felt safe living in their neighborhood, which is, I mean, that's that's amazing to have that feeling. And that goes along with the diversity of housing options that we are seeing. So I think to council memberships point of Goodyear is a safe place to live really is true.
Jordan Byrd:Well, Tammy, that's going to do it for this edition of Growing Goodyear. I think we have a lot of great takeaways, and hopefully some information for those out there that were listening to this about apartment living, single family rentals. And hopefully you were able to take a little something out of this one as well. So until the next episode of Growing Goodyear, I'm Jordan Byrd.
Tammy Vo:I'm Tammy Vo.
Jordan Byrd:And it's a great time to be in Goodyear. That concludes this episode of Growing Goodyear. Make sure to leave us a review and subscribe on your favorite streaming or podcast player app. If you have any questions or comments, email us at communications at good year az.gov. And don't forget to follow us on the city of good years social media pages