As development of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway has inched closer to a reality over the years, the proposed Pecos Alignment of the freeway has been most hotly debated because of the impending destruction to South Mountain itself. But many in Ahwatukee Foothills — on paper a part of the City of Phoenix, but ostensibly it’s own community of nearly 80,000 residents neighboring Tempe and Chandler — are also fearful of the state removing homes, businesses and a church to build the new freeway.

Most of us already realize “normal” is relative. Yet, we are only human. And as such, we can scarcely stop ourselves from the very-human behavior of seizing every available opportunity to try to quantify and define the term.

A survey shows U.S. home prices rose 10.5 percent in March compared with a year ago, the biggest gain since March 2006.

No one can deny the Great Recession left a permanent mark on our nation and its economy. But what effect did it have on the American Dream of Home Ownership? That’s the question we set out to answer by asking Phoenix-based Benchmark Research Technologies to survey nearly 1,700 Arizona new home shoppers about their attitudes surrounding home ownership in the post-recession era.

Home prices are expected to continue their rise — in the East Valley in particular — as a shortage of available homes creates an imbalance in the market, according to a report released last week by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

The number of Arizona homeowners losing their home to repossession or who are in some stage of the foreclosure process keeps on dropping.

Attorney General Tom Horne did nothing wrong in transferring $50 million from a nationwide mortgage settlement to the state general fund to balance the budget, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

A new report shows 34 percent of all home sales in Arizona last year involved houses in some stage of the foreclosure process.

There’s no place like home for the holidays, but for hundreds of pets discovered abandoned in homes due to foreclosure throughout the Valley, there would be no place like a permanent home.

A lot of people like to make predictions on what is going to happen. Too few of us take responsibility for their successes and, yes, their failures. Here is what I forecast on December 23, 2011 followed by what actually happened and my report card:

Kori Rockwell said it was exciting to see her dream home being built from the ground up.

"Killing Them Softly" is a stylish and violent dark comedy about low-level gangsters and thugs, set squarely within the U.S. economic collapse of autumn 2008. In rather heavy-handed fashion, it suggests that the mob functions as a microcosm of American capitalism. Thankfully, Brad Pitt is there to keep it from going under.

The lawyer for Attorney General Tom Horne said Monday his client was legally entitled to surrender $50 million of the money the state got from a nationwide mortgage settlement.

I can sniff out a sweet-smelling bargain the same way that Australian Aborigines can smell rain on the far side of the horizon. I was going to depend on this talent sooner than I thought.

The number of Arizona homes in some stage of the foreclosure process dropped again in October compared to a year ago, and homes actually repossessed by banks also dipped.

This country has truly changed, and I believe there will be no going back. Hate lost on Election Day. That is amazing in and of itself. Add to that all the women who were elected and you have a total rebuke of Neanderthal attitudes.

Editor's Note: These letters to the editor have been sorted by topic by the Tribune editorial staff in an effort to allow readers to read varied opinions on the issues, candidates, and other circumstances surrounding the 2012 general election. These submissions are the opinions of the author, not the Tribune, and have not been edited for grammar or content.

The Arizona Animal Welfare League and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are asking for your vote in order to win $25,000 in a nationwide challenge to save more lives.

The Arizona Animal Welfare League and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are asking for your vote in order to win $25,000 in a nationwide challenge to save more lives.

Healthy green shakes were in, pizza was out -- no matter how much everyone around him seemed to savor its gooey goodness every day.

Habitat for Humanity is looking for families in Apache Junction to partner with and is accepting applications.

The number of Arizona homes in some stage of the foreclosure process dropped again in September compared to a year ago, although homes actually repossessed by banks rose slightly.

State lawmakers did nothing wrong when they seized $50 million out of the settlement Arizona got with mortgage lenders, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Columnist Linda Turley-Hansen has written a couple of pieces lately, exhorting us to vote in the upcoming presidential election. In one, she ended with this: Our choice was either socialism or freedom (guess who the socialist is?). In her more recent one, she tells us to vote because Obama is killing the coal industry. In other words, a second Obama term is Apocalypse Now.