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Speculators Grabbing Desert Land as Metro Phoenix Grows

PHOENIX-The buyers are scooping up tracts as far out as 60 miles in the Sonoran Desert. In most cases, they are betting the planned highways will bring prosperity in five to 10 years. The 4,000 per month population increase is driving the speculation.

By Beverly Ford | Updated on December 15, 2002

PHOENIX-The wide expanse of the Sonoran Desert surrounding metropolitan Phoenix has become prime fodder for speculative land buyers who are scooping up the desert’s far reaches in hope of making huge profits as the valley’s population soars.

“Wherever there are no houses and no sewers there are speculators,” John Finnegan, an associate in Phoenix with CB Richard Ellis Inc. tells GlobeSt.com.

Land 50 miles beyond the city’s core, particularly around planned transportation corridors in the southeast and west valley, is of prime appeal, Finnegan said, as speculators realize the potential for doubling their investments within just five or 10 years. “The freeway corridors will just make those areas wide open,” he said, noting that cheap land and planned freeway access in Pinal County just east of the valley, is increasingly gaining speculator interest. Land around Florence, about 35 miles south of Phoenix, also is catching the eye of speculators due to the planned development of three master-planned communities, he said.

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