Fourth Avenue Street Fair

The Fourth Avenue Winter Street Fair is this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and takes place between East Ninth Street and University Blvd. along North Fourth Avenue. Free to the public, the Fourth Avenue Street Fair brings together 400 arts and crafts booths, 35 food vendors, 3 stages, street musicians, food, jugglers, street performers, kids entertainment, face painting, balloons and tons of other fun activities, and then packs them into three days of celebration.

Among the fine art available are the fascinating photographs of my good bud and home buying and selling client, John Villinski. John specializes in close ups of mysterious objects like the car shown here. He also has images of landscapes, desert plants, minerals and much more. His works are still affordable, even to novice art collectors. You can buy one now and be able to say you knew him before he became famous, as I have no doubt he will be before long. You could also pick up some of his original greeting cards. Check out the amazing things on his web site, and then go meet him and buy his wares at booth 660 on the east side of North Fourth Avenue between East Fourth and Fifth Streets.

Home Value and Schools

In the December issue of DesertLeaf, the free magazine about Catalina Foothills living, is an article about how proximity to a school affects property values in Tucson. Chad A. Hartley, AICP, looked at average dollar per square foot sale price of single family houses sold in 2006 in eleven submarket areas in the greater Tucson area, and compared that to the $/sf sale price of houses within one quarter mile of a school.

The average sale price in the entire metro Tucson area was on average $10/sf less for houses located within a quarter mile of any type of school. The largest impact was in Northeast/Tanque Verde, where houses near schools sold for $20/sf less. The lowest impact was seen in Central/West Tucson, where houses near schools sold for only $1/sf less than the average house in that area.

Hartley suggested that one possible explanation could be that schools tend to be located on busy streets. Prospective buyers may also be concerned about kids hanging around and causing mischief before or after school. The study did not evaluate whether the price effect was greater near high schools.