Chandler Real Estate

Ahwatukee ("Ahwatukee Foothills Village") is an L-shaped bedroom community in Arizona bordered on the north by South Mountain Park and Baseline Road, on the east by Interstate 10 and the cities of Chandler, Guadalupe, and Tempe, and on the south and west by the Gila River Indian Community.

Although annexed by the City of Phoenix, Arizona, from 1978 to 1987, before substantial residential growth, many of its residents consider it a separate city. It is one of the city's 15 urban villages. The 35.8 square-mile (92.7 km˛) village currently has a population of approximately 85,000 people.

Ahwatukee has been recognized by Money Magazine as one of America's "Best Places to Live". As of April 2005, the median home price in the community is $315,000, third only to Scottsdale and Paradise Valley among cities in the Phoenix Metro area in terms of housing prices.

According to a business section article in The Arizona Republic on December 20, 2006, residents in the Ahwatukee ZIP code 85045 have the highest credit card debt in metropolitan Phoenix, with an average revolving credit card debt of over $6,000. Also, notice of trustee sales, the first step to home foreclosures, are much higher in Ahwatukee than in metro Phoenix. Many realtors and financial planners are attributing Ahwatukee's residents' high debt to overspending, poor personal budgeting skills, and living beyond their incomes' means. These experts also believe that adjustable mortgages and rising interest rates are partly to blame. The article suggests that Awhatukee residents, especially those living in western Ahwatukee (85045), are living beyond their financial capabilities and these residents are keeping up with the Joneses, but with the potential of enduring financial hardship. Also, that pressure to keep up with the neighbors, as well as eating out, and expensive private education for their children, contribute to such high consumer debt.

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