From COVID Boom to Today: How the Prescott Market Has Changed

From COVID Boom to Today: How the Prescott Market Has Changed

It is hard to overstate how dramatically real estate changed between 2020 and today.

In just a few short years, we saw one of the fastest and most aggressive housing markets in memory, followed by one of the most challenging shifts the industry has faced in decades.

If you are trying to understand why the Prescott market feels so different now, the answer starts with looking at what happened during the COVID years and what those changes set in motion.

The boom years changed everything

When the pandemic hit, the housing market did not slow down the way many people expected. In fact, in many places, it accelerated.

Interest rates dropped into the 2.5 to 3.5 percent range. Money was cheap. Buyers had more purchasing power. At the same time, people’s lifestyles were changing quickly. Remote work opened new possibilities. Families wanted more space. Some wanted a home office. Some wanted to leave larger metro areas. Some simply felt urgency because they were afraid prices would keep climbing.

And they did.

In markets across Arizona, values jumped sharply. In some areas, annual appreciation reached levels that felt almost impossible. Buyers were competing aggressively, writing escalation clauses, waiving comfort, and making fast decisions just to stay in the game.

Prescott felt it. Phoenix felt it. The entire region felt it.

We borrowed buyers from the future

One of the most important ideas from the podcast was this: the market borrowed buyers from the future.

A lot of people who bought between 2020 and 2022 may have eventually become buyers anyway, but the low rates and intense environment pulled them forward. They bought sooner than they otherwise would have because the opportunity felt too good to pass up.

That matters, because it changed the timing of demand.

It also means that once rates jumped and affordability dropped, the market was left trying to find its footing without that same wave of urgency behind it.

Affordability became the issue

During the boom, demand was high because affordability was strong. Low rates made larger loan amounts manageable. Buyers could stretch further. Payments felt more reasonable.

Then rates rose.

And not by a little.

The shift from rates around 3 percent to rates north of 7 percent hit buyers hard. Purchasing power dropped in a major way. Suddenly, the same buyer who could comfortably afford one home payment a year or two earlier was now looking at a dramatically different monthly number.

That changed demand almost overnight.

What used to be a supply-and-demand conversation became a supply, demand, and affordability conversation. Affordability became the factor that started driving behavior.

The slowdown was real

The last couple of years were challenging, not just in Prescott, but nationally.

According to the discussion in the podcast, 2024 and 2025 were among the lowest resale years in decades. That tells you how dramatic the market shift really was.

Fewer transactions did not necessarily mean there was no opportunity. But it did mean the market was harder. Buyers became more selective. Sellers had to adjust expectations. Agents had to learn how to operate in a more complex, less forgiving environment.

That is a very different skill set than simply surviving a hot market.

What the market looks like now

Today, Prescott feels more balanced than it did in the frenzy years.

Inventory has held relatively steady. Buyers are still active, but more cautious. Rates are still influencing behavior, but people are beginning to accept that this may be the rate environment for a while. Instead of waiting forever for some perfect return to 2021, many buyers are learning to make decisions in the market we actually have.

That is an important shift.

The market today is not easy, but it is more understandable. There are opportunities on both sides if people approach it with the right expectations and a smart strategy.

The biggest lesson from the past few years

The lesson is not that real estate is too risky or too unpredictable. The lesson is that markets move in cycles, and every cycle requires a different response.

The buyers and sellers who do well are the ones who understand the moment they are in, not the ones who keep wishing they were back in a different one.

If you want to make a move in today’s Prescott market, it helps to work with someone who has seen the shift, adapted with it, and knows how to help you move wisely in the version of the market we are in now.