Picturesque Main Street in Buckeye, Arizona.

This is what Main Street looks like in Buckeye, Arizona.  It’s pretty picturesque, isn’t it?  The Main Street in Buckeye is about 25 miles west of downtown Phoenix off of I-10.  It’s part of the dreamed filled vision called “Verrado Way.” A place billed by its developers as a neighborhood with “a warm welcoming ambiance and small-town charm.  Verrado is a diverse community where you can build your own path to happiness.”

Looks can be deceiving though.

A foreclosed house on Main Street in Buckeye, Arizona.

I drive out Main Street in Buckeye and at first I don’t find anything wrong.  Then I get out of my car and see a young man trying to corral two dogs that have escaped their owner’s backyard. These dogs are not friendly. They keep chasing kids on bikes and running after cars. But they have tags, so the mutts belong to someone. Kyle Sweet is the man I meet.  He’s down from Boulder where he goes to college and is visiting his mom who lives on Main Street.

“I thought there were a lot of foreclosures on this block?”

“There are.  My mom’s had about three different neighbors on both sides of her and she moved here only a few months ago.  She got a great deal on her house.   The foreclosure rate is really high here. ”

We continue to walk, talking with a few other people trying to figure out what to do about these damn dogs roaming Main Street.  We can’t seem to get close to them. Eventually someone calls up the home owner’s association to see if they can get animal control out here.

Kevin and I continue to walk and we soon realize that there are more empty houses than we had thought.

“The thing you have to do is look at the grass.”

Once the ground is brown, the house is empty. A foreclosed home on Main Street in Buckeye, Arizona.

Brown grass = empty house.  Even if they don’t have signs.  Even if they look beautiful.

“It’s worse that it looks.  Everything is hidden here.”

Kyle and I walk up and down Main Street looking for brown grass, the walk up to the homes to see if they’re empty.  I’m surprised by each vacant home.  They look like palaces.  There are so many houses on this Main Street that are empty, I lose count after a while.  It’s like a Disneyland Ghost Town.

I make Kyle stand by a Main Street sign and take his picture.

Kyle Sweet, my Main Street Buckeye tour guide, stands by a sign.

After our informal adventure and tour, I get in the car and drive off.  I never did find out what happened to those dogs.