Arizona highest in housing instability

Sept. 22, 2020

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Arizona has one of the highest housing instability rates in the country. A recent student looked at why so many evictions and foreclosures are happening in the state and especially in Maricopa County. Lora Phillips, a PhD post doctoral research scholar at ASU, conducted the study.

“If you look at all housing loss in the state eviction or foreclosure, Arizona is unfortunately the highest in the country,” Phillips said. “In terms of eviction rates, we’re number two in the country with about 5.6% of renters being evicted every year.”

Looking at Arizona specifically, Maricopa County has the highest rate in Arizona. Phillips wanted to focus on certain reasons on where and who were losing homes.

The study also focused on why this was happening. Phillips said one reason is that Arizona has a high percentage of people who have low or fixed incomes, particularly among seniors. “At the same time, what we’re seeing is that housing costs are a bit high here, and they have been rising more than the national average over a period of time. So you have low and kind of fixed income, working against the fact that housing costs are increasing, and so it’s difficult for people to keep up, when they might not be making more than they were making last year, but their rent might be increasing.”