Poster Child for Housing Crisis: 'They Were Building Mortgages' in Arizona Town

In just eight years, this city sprang from the desert almost spontaneously. Where once there was a railroad crossing, a Dairy Queen and about 1,000 people, there are now 33,000 residents in what has become a bedroom community for Phoenix, a 40-minute drive northeast across the desert. Maricopa was built so quickly that it does not have a hospital or a movie theater. It has nice new schools, but the only restaurants are chains such as Taco Bell and Panda Express. Still, this was the place... Full Story