The hammering and drilling have stopped, the sales office is shut down and rumors are rampant in homeowner Andrew Kerr’s Maricopa neighborhood. When the retired Illinois educator stumbled upon Province 18 months ago, the active adult community was exactly what he wanted. It still is.

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But about two weeks ago, financially strapped builder Engle Homes closed its Province sales office and 11 other field offices Valleywide, also removing the communities from its Web site.

Now, residents like Kerr worry what will become of their partially finished community.

“There’s a certain level of frustration and anxiety,” he said. “A lot of people really understand there’s nothing they can do about the situation.”

Engle’s parent company, TOUSA, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January.

The sales office closures are part of the company’s efforts to trim costs as it goes through restructuring, spokeswoman Jennifer Mercer said.

“It’s very common at this point, given the way the market is right now,” she said. “One of the very first things we need to do is lean out our expenses.”

But it doesn’t mean that Engle is exiting the market, and the builder plans to make good on its commitments to customers, Mercer said.

Still, local industry analysts say the closures are the first sign that a builder could bail.

“That’s the lifeblood,” said John Fioramonti, senior managing director of Scottsdale’s Meyers Builder Advisors. “Everything else doesn’t matter if you don’t have sales.”

Roughly 880 out of more than 1,500 homes planned at Province, a gated-community, were sold as of February, according to the research firm. Valleywide, Engle’s more than 30 communities have been averaging 1.7 sales a month, compared with three to five sales for other builders, Fioramonti said.

Engle’s financial troubles aren’t unique in a flagging housing market and economy.

Valley Builders have been dumping thousands of home lots to free up cash and placate anxious stockholders.

Capital Pacific Homes recently sold 209 lots in Maricopa to a local investor for $4.9 million, according to Business Real Estate Weekly.

Last fall, Scottsdale-based The Wolff Co. partnered with Gilbert’s Langley Properties to buy more than 6,800 acres of land in Casa Grande from national builder D.R. Horton for $70 million.

And Pennsylvania-based Orleans Homebuilders pulled out of the Valley market altogether, scrapping plans for a 267-home subdivision in Gilbert.

“Several builders are just trying to reduce their footprints,” said Ben Sage, director of research firm Metrostudy’s Arizona division.

Many builders pay for options to buy pieces of land in the future and are now dumping those options, an expensive proposition, Sage said.

TOUSA, Engle’s parent company, abandoned options on 9,400 home sites across the country, forfeiting $166.9 million in cash deposits, according to the company’s quarterly report filed in November.

In the report, TOUSA said its troubles have stemmed, in part, from “severe liquidity challenges in the credit and mortgage markets, diminished consumer confidence” and “increased home inventories and foreclosures.”

Mercer, TOUSA’s spokeswoman, said that Engle formed a joint venture with Scottsdale’s Sunbelt Holdings to develop Province in Maricopa. Sunbelt is now working on acquiring new financing to resume construction, she said.

In the meantime, Province homeowners wait for news.

Resident Linda Demain said she believes Engle has been straightforward and doesn’t listen to the rumors whirling around the neighborhood.

Workers are still completing maintenance jobs, mowing lawns and pruning trees, Demain said. Engle has put a lot of time and effort into this project and, hopefully, it will be able to see it through, she said.

If not, Demain said she believes another builder will be eager to take it over.

It doesn’t do any good to worry, she said.

“Honestly, what choice is there?” she said. “You can’t stay home and brood every day.”