Economist: Maricopa housing about to ‘take off’

With the city’s close proximity to jobs, well-known Phoenix Valley economist Elliott Pollack said the housing market in Maricopa is “about to really take off.”

“All homebuilders that I speak to speak highly of Maricopa,” Pollack said Friday, following a presentation at a Pinal Partnership event.

The Pinal Partnership is a group of local business, government and educational leaders that focuses on community development and other areas within the county. Pollack gave an economic forecast presentation during a breakfast held at Rawhide Western Town and Steakhouse on the Gila River Indian Community.

Pollack said he thinks Maricopa will do “exceptionally well” during the next couple of years with the housing market bouncing back. The only drawback for the city, he said, is traffic on State Route 347.

“Whatever you can do to relieve that situation certainly helps,” Pollack said. “The more people come in, the situation’s going to get worse, not better.”

Pollack explained that Maricopa is receiving many “ripple effect jobs” as opposed to “base jobs.” A base job is a job that exports its product out of state, he said. The ripple effect jobs are the suppliers of those companies.

“Ultimately you need to create some more base jobs, but right now the base jobs are really close enough that I think (Maricopa will) do well,” he said.

Pollack, CEO of a Scottsdale-based economic and real estate consulting firm, said Pinal County as a whole is going to start to improve economically.