Real estate bust and foreclosure boom comes home to a neighborhood built on easy credit

[Purveyor]

QUEEN CREEK, Arizona: Out on Phoenix's suburban fringes, where cement mixers are fast colonizing hay and cotton fields, the day is winding to a close. The home hour has arrived.

But sundown gives away a troubling secret: Behind dark windows and unanswered doors, it's clear nobody is coming home.

The ranch home on Via del Palo where the newspaper in the driveway has been sitting unclaimed since April. The house at the corner of 223rd Court with faded fliers stuck in the door.

They're empty, left behind by a rising tide of foreclosures.

This neighborhood has a still-unfolding story to tell. It's not always a comfortable one to hear.

Not long ago, builders were raising home prices here thousands of dollars week after week. Families camped out for lotteries to win the right to buy. Buyers gambled with loans whose risks were obscured by euphoria.

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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/07/america/NA-FEA-GEN-US-Leaving-Homes.php