These articles reflect but also create the conventional wisdom about the real estate market. Conventional wisdom is a nice proxy for demand so stories like this that affect conventional wisdom about future home prices, tend to increase demand.
Realize that this WSJ piece is on the U.S. housing market not the Arizona housing market.
My favorite bit – “In something of a surprise, the inventory of existing homes for sale has fallen close to the normal level of six months’ worth…”
In Phoenix, we have less than a 2 months’ supply of homes listed for sale. That level of inventory is like what we saw during the height of the boom in the spring of 2005.
http://live.wsj.com/public/page/embed-746975B9_5214_45E4_BEAD_C38B98FDC3DE.html