CEOs' home purchases, stock sales and subsequent company performance management

Phoenix, now the fifth largest city in the United States, could be the poster child for metropolitan areas where a bursting residential housing bubble has created economic discord.

Since the turn of the millennium, real estate has become one of the fastest growing investment sectors, not just in the United States but globally as well. But as much as we would like to think otherwise, there's considerable risk involved in real estate investing.

Picture the U.S.

For the first time in three years, the ASU-RSI (Repeat Sales Index) is showing an increase in residential prices: preliminary data for March show that year-over-year, prices for homes in the lower-price and foreclosure segments in Phoenix turned positive.

Housing prices in Phoenix continued their downward march in September, extending a record string of declines that started 19 months ago. Home prices fell 28 percent this September compared with the same month last year, according to the Arizona State University-Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI).

Arizona real estate markets tend to swing wildly. During boom periods, home prices accelerate precipitously, but when the bubble bursts, residential values sometimes slink all the way back to the price level at the start of cyclical upturn.

The 13 economists who track the real estate construction industry for the Greater Phoenix Blue Chip Economic Forecast are projecting that the metro area's residential market will bottom out in 2009, however down times will continue on for the multi family and commercial sector.

Malaise in the economy is slowing down the arrival of relief for Phoenix real estate and lengthening what is already a record-breaking run of declining prices, according to an analysis of the Arizona State University-Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI).