By Catherine Reagor, The Republic | azcentral.com
Metro Phoenix no longer ranks as a top market for investors looking for inexpensive houses to turn into rentals.
The number of investors buying houses in the Valley has been falling steadily since 2012, when prices began to soar and foreclosures plummeted. In March, about 17 percent of all home sales were investor-driven, according to Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business. That’s less than half the number of investor purchases during 2011, at the bottom of the housing crash.