New York Times writer lives in Maricopa to do research for real estate story

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Maricopa’s housing woes, as well as some new opportunities connected with the real estate “bust,” have been reported to the more than 1.6 million people who read the Sunday edition of the New York Times, in addition to millions of others who read the newspaper online.

In a 4,300-word article, written by contributing writer Samantha M. Shapiro, the Times focuses primarily on the shattered goals of two residents, Daryl Fox and Rita Weiss. Fox bought his Rancho El Dorado home in April 2006 from proceeds shared by he and his ex-wife after selling a house in Chandler.

He put 15 percent down on the home, which cost $212,000 at the time, using a 7.5-percent adjustable rate mortgage. He knew the mortgage would reset this year, at a higher rate of interest, but the story said that Fox assumed the value of his home would continue to rise and that he would be able to refinance.

By this January, the house was worth much less than Fox owed on it.

The article goes on to recount details of Fox’s housing nightmare, including his attempt to unload the house at $135,000 with no offers in sight. It’s scheduled for foreclosure in May.

Weiss, the article said, “had come to this city to take part in its biggest industry: buying and selling houses.” During the “peak of Maricopa’s housing frenzy,” the article went on, “Weiss was closing on average of 17 houses a month.”

Weiss, who had moved to Maricopa from Scottsdale, bought a home in Maricopa and another in Casa Grande in 2005, with no money down and interest-only mortgages. “She planned to hang on to them for a year and then resell them,” the Times article reported, “using the profits to pay for a house in Scottsdale.”

“But then the market turned on Weiss.”

Shapiro related how she rented a house in Rancho El Dorado for a week so she could conduct her research and write the lengthy article.

While living in Maricopa, Shapiro spent considerable time at Fry’s Marketplace, which another resident described as “the hangout for Maricopa.”

Packed with local history and colorful detail, the article gives the reader a fairly accurate overview of Maricopa’s housing situation, while describing it as typical of many other communities in the Southwest.

Bearing the headline, “The Boomtown Mirage,” the long article is the main feature of “Key,” a new quarterly real estate supplement included in the paper’s Sunday edition.

The article is available online at www.nytimes.com. Click on the “Sunday magazine” link, then on “Key magazine.”

Submitted photo