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Queen Creek, Pinal hit hard by foreclosures
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Most of the foreclosures in the Valley are in the farthest flung neighborhoods where buyers had gone to get the most house for their buck.
Neighborhoods from Queen Creek and Pinal County in the southeast to Laveen, Goodyear and Buckeye in the southwest to Surprise and Anthem in the northwest have at least three times as many homeowners struggling to hold on than communities closer in, according to an Arizona Republic analysis of data from the real-estate research firm Information Market.
The number of Valley residents who lost their homes to foreclosure has nearly tripled since last year, from 1,073 in all of 2006 to 2,954 through June of this year. Of that, most are in fringe neighborhoods.
Some suburbs like Queen Creek and parts of Gilbert were hit especially hard, with the number of people in danger of losing their homes quadrupling in the past year.
In most parts of Tempe, central Phoenix and Scottsdale, meanwhile, the rate has climbed but not nearly at the same pace.
Real-estate analysts say foreclosures in Arizona likely have yet to peak. Interest rates on the biggest block of subprime adjustable mortgages in the country are set to climb this fall, prompting market watchers to call for the biggest jump in foreclosures to happen in late 2007 and early 2008.
Real-estate agents say the metro area’s fringes aren’t the draw they once were because of rising foreclosures.
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