History files little under 2007 beyond a trade — the 1977 Registry Resort demolished for condos on McCormick Ranch, Olive & Ivy opening on the canal at the new Waterfront — which is its own kind of comment: this was the boom’s last full year, and the boom felt ordinary. The Waterfront towers were up over the canal, the Valley Ho’s second act was under way, Old Town’s clubs were charging cover, and construction on the SkySong campus was headed toward its 2008 opening on the old Los Arcos site.
Underneath it, metro Phoenix had become one of the most housing-leveraged economies in America, and Scottsdale — construction- and finance-heavy on top of tourism — was riding the very front of it. The 2005 special census figure of 226,395 was still the number people quoted. Within eighteen months the condo pipeline would freeze mid-pour. What broke, and what kept working, is the story of 2008.