PHOENIX -- As the housing crisis continues, two couples in Arizona found an easy way to sell their homes: they traded them.

"This really just started out as such an incredibly bizarre situation," Lisa Blank said.

Blank and her husband, Bob Conrad, wanted a smaller house.

"We've wanted to downsize for a couple years," Conrad said.

Their friends, Larry and Ruth White, wanted a bigger house. Ruth White realized each couple had a house the other might want.

"Ruth said to my wife, 'Lisa, I'm not kidding. Why don't we just trade houses?'" Conrad said.

"It was a perfect idea," Larry White said.

When the couples checked out each other's homes, they loved what they saw.

"It was the first time we saw the house. The four of us looked at each other and said, 'OK. Let's do it,'" said Blank.

Conrad and Blank took the Whites' smaller north Phoenix house and the Whites got the other couple's larger house less than three miles away. The bigger house was worth more, so Larry White paid the difference.

The couples used the same lending company, title company and appraiser. They sat down with a mutual real estate friend and made the deal happen.

"I just can't believe how smooth everything went," Larry White said.

The two couples moved last weekend.

"What's the chances of that happening?" Blank said. "You know, two people finding just what they want."