Apartments answer to Arizona housing crash?

CHANDLER, AZ - A Denver-based developer is looking to build several apartment complexes across the Valley. A natural response, real estate experts say, to the housing crash.
 
Archstone Developers is currently looking to build a 380 unit complex at Queen Creek Road and Arizona Avenue in the next year and a half if approved by Chandler zoning. They have about a dozen more sites in Chandler, Tempe, Scottsdale and Phoenix where they are looking to build as well.
 
"There hasn't been any multi-family building in the past three years," said Archstone representative Mike Curley. "There is a pent up demand. Because of all the employment along the Price Road Corridor it is really where the jobs are occurring and the multi-family development follows that."

"We have a demand for rentals," said ASU's Mike Stapp, real estate development expert with the W.P. Carey School of Business. "There is going to be a mix of demand for houses and apartments.  The building is a good sign. It is going to help bring the market back in to equilibrium."
 
Stapp expects more apartment development to follow saying that the existing houses on the market and those up for lease are not always meeting the demand for housing in the right areas.
 
"People want a certain quality in a certain location and some times they don't want a house," Stapp said.
 
It will still be some time before single family home building starts up again.
 
Archstone hopes to have some of its proposed project completed over the next year and a half.