Policy implemented by Hobbs Administration drove up housing costs, Arizona now ranked 45th nationally in affordability
GILBERT, AZ— A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Katie Hobbs’ harmful housing moratorium is illegal and prevented the Hobbs Administration from using the policy to stop new home development in parts of Maricopa County.
Hobbs’ policy, which mismanaged water projections and caused housing developments in Queen Creek and Buckeye to stop, had been opposed by state economic leaders like the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, whose industry has been under attack from Day 1 of the Hobbs Administration.
The group pointed to this policy as a reason for rising housing costs that caused Arizona’s affordability ranking to plummet to 45th in the country.
“This is just another example of Katie Hobbs’ incompetence hurting Arizonans and driving up the cost of living in our state,” said Congressman Andy Biggs, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for Governor. “This harmful Hobbs policy, which damaged our homebuilding industry while driving up housing costs and scaring off businesses from investing in our state, never should have been implemented and certainly shouldn’t have been done unilaterally. Arizonans cannot afford Katie Hobbs and now we know we cannot even trust her to legally implement policies that affect the lives of thousands of Maricopa County residents.”
According to the Arizona Mirror, Timothy Sandefur, Vice President of Legal Affairs for the Goldwater Institute, offered the following statement on the ruling:
“We’re delighted that the court has struck down the bureaucracy’s newfangled restriction on home construction — a rule that reduced the availability of homes and raised housing costs in one of the nation’s fastest-growing housing markets.”
