TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- More than 5,000 homes have fallen into foreclosure in the Tucson area in the first nine months of this year, affecting everyone from lower-income residents to those who live in upscale neighborhoods.

That's nearly double the number of foreclosures last year, a trend that experts say is due to the rapid real estate price increases and risky mortgage lending over the past few years.

Some of the biggest jumps in foreclosures occurred in the northeastern and southwestern outskirts of the Tucson metro area and in Sahuarita - all of which had at least twice as many foreclosures during the first nine months of the year compared with last year, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc., a Web site for the buyers and sellers of foreclosed property.

On the northwest side alone, the increase was more than 76 percent.

Marshall Vest, director of the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management, said many borrowers used risky loans, often with adjustable interest rates, to buy homes they could otherwise not afford.

Some also used risky loans to refinance their mortgages and lower their payments or to cash out equity, said Keith Ernst, senior policy counsel for the North Carolina-based Center for Responsible Lending, an advocacy group that researches predatory lending.

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Fred Hubbard, an official at distressed property buyer HomeVestors, said the company is receiving about four times the call volume this year as they were in 2003

"It's terrible to see parents with tears in their faces, humiliated that they cannot secure homes for their families," Hubbard said.

Maria Jimenez said she is afraid she will lose her Tucson home because of an increasing payment for a refinance loan she received about two years ago. The payment is set to rise from about $980 to $1,300 in December.

"I still have to pay my lawyers," she said. "It's just really outrageous."