MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — Editor's Note: The above video is from an earlier broadcast.
The number of eviction cases filed last month in Maricopa County is reaching the levels experienced before the pandemic began two years ago.
More than 5,200 eviction filings were recorded across the county in January -- a number not seen at this range since February 2020, according to data released by the Maricopa County Justice Courts.
Once the pandemic began and eviction moratoriums went into effect across the country, evictions dropped dramatically in Maricopa County.
Throughout the rest of 2020, monthly eviction filings ranged between 1,500 and 3,400. December 2020 recorded more than 4,200 evictions before numbers started dropping again in early 2021.
They started rising again by the end of 2021 after the federal moratoriums expired and January 2022 marked the first month that's recorded more than 5,000 filings over the last two years.
In 2019, monthly eviction filings ranged between 4,300 and 6,200.
Rent prices in many Valley cities have been rising substantially during the pandemic, according to a recent report released by Apartment List.
Information on rental assistance programs available in Maricopa County can be found here.
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How big is Maricopa County?
Maricopa County is the United States’ 4th largest county in terms of population with 4,485,414 people, according to the 2020 Census.
The county contains around 63% of Arizona’s population and is 9,224 square miles. That makes the county larger than seven U.S. states (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire).
One of the largest park systems in the nation is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks that includes hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers and campgrounds.
The county’s seat is located in Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the census-designated 5th most populous city in the United States.
The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American Tribe.