By Jennifer Srock

The city of Maricopa, AZ has been booming in housing sales due to the extremely affordable pricing. Many people are buying in the area simply because of the pricing and realizing later that they wish they had looked into the area a bit more before deciding the area is comfortable for them. Of course, others are happy with their home purchase. The point of this post is to share some residents’ concerns with you so you can make your own informed decision to buy or not to buy in Maricopa.

The largest employers for the City of Maricopa are:

• Global Water
• Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino
• Pinal Energy
• University of Arizona Maricopa Agricultural Center (look for current job openings)

Working outside of Maricopa most conveniently takes commuters to Casa Grande and Chandler both about 20 minutes away. Longer commutes take people to the Greater Phoenix area and even Tucson.

You may also want to check the daily forecast discussion for the city of Maricopa from the EPA via “Air Now”. Residents are hoping the air will clear up now that some of the cows have been moved out. “It was hard to breathe in the evenings” some say. Some haven’t noticed a change  since some of the cows moooved, some still complain, and others say they got used to the smell or it never bothered them to begin with.

Here are some links you may want to check out as well.

City Data Website – Stats about all US cities.

City Data Forums – Local discussions.

InMaricopa.com – A public forum.

In regards to concerns of Sulfates in the soil causing concrete efflorescence in Maricopa, you may want to check out the following:

These are community forums:

http://www.maricopachat.com/FORUM/tabid/60/forumid/4/postid/216358/view/topic/Default.aspx
http://forum.maricopa360.com/index.php/topic,2008.0.html

This is from an area newspaper and contains more facts
http://www.trivalleycentral.com/articles/2010/09/14/maricopa_monitor/top_stories/doc4c89343dd6afc495735776.txt

Last I heard, the sulfates in the soil of Maricopa has not been proven nor disproved – it’s still under investigation.  There was a class action lawsuit opened in 2010 in regards to this in the Maricopa Meadows subdivision and Phoenix attorney John Chaix seeks to add about 1600 home owners experiencing the same issues in a few Maricopa Subdivisions. From the published reports, the issue isn’t throughout the city but reportedly in isolated areas with the following builders: Brown Family Communities, Courtland Homes, Elite Communities, Frontier Homes, HomeLife Communities, KB Home, Richmond American Homes and Standard Pacific Homes.

So, are speculators still flocking to invest in Maricopa, AZ? You Betcha! Even Bristol Palin purchased a home there in December of 2010.  So, the moral of this post is, do your own investigating before you decide to buy in an area based off of price alone. You may love your decision and you may end up regretting your decision. Either way, you own your decision and have to live with it.

Search AZ Homes For Sale