2101 N Treat Ave

 Enchanting. As soon as you enter this special home, you will be under its spell.

You will be surrounded by warmth and calmness.

When you learn that a series of spiritual and physical healers have lived here for decades, you will start to understand the serenity you feel.

A beehive fireplace anchors the 23' x 21.5' living room. Revitalized Saltillo tile on most floors. The southwest suite has a den, bedroom with fir floors and a bathroom with tiles by Andrew Rush.

The north bedroom has brick floors and gorgeous hand painted cabinets.

The guest house is one of the best I have seen.

Ceramic floors and skylights in living room, kitchen, bedroom and bath. Mature trees on 0.26 acre lot.

This property is extraordinary.

The floor plan is here. We offered this wonderful property for $350,000, but then the owner decided to keep it as a rental.

Oh, the Humanity!

Check out this video showing the population growth in Tucson from the dusty cow town of 1870 to the building of University of Arizona, the U.S.C.G.S Magnetic Observatory (Morris K Udall Park), Hughes Aircraft (Raytheon) and Davis Monthan Air Force Base to the sprawl to the east, south, north and west.

Reminds me of those propaganda films they used to show us in elementary school in the '60s. The Red Menace spreading like blood over Southeast Asia. For you young 'uns, the Red Menace was Communism, which scared us into the Vietnam War and the arms race with Russia. Makes me kind of nostalgic for the days when all we had to worry about was enemies who put their insignia on their planes, had identifiable leadership and locations, and for the most part stayed over on the other side of the world.

69 N Desert Stream Drive

I just adore a Tucson Mountain view. My new listing has the purple mountain majesty plus eight acres of protected wash behind it.

Imagine relaxing in your spa on your huge covered porch enjoying a stunning view of the sun setting over the Tucson Mountains. Nothing between you and the lush desert wash but the view fence.

Yes, and the house is extraordinary, too.


The great room deserves its name: high ceilings, spacious kitchen with breakfast bar overlooking the dining and living areas with a gas fireplace. Ceramic tile throughout. Whole house humidifier and water softener. Orange, lemon and apricot trees.

Four bedrooms and two baths. Luxurious master suite with walk in closet and oval tub. Split floor plan for peace and quiet. Tasteful designer colors. Simply exquisite. The floor plan is here. Also see desertstarhoa.org

Sold for list price, $229,000, on June 28, 2013. We had two offers, so with the buyers competing with each other, the seller didn't have to pay the buyer's closing costs. This was my first time working for a relocation company. The relo company's in-house agent wanted to list the house for $219,000 and sell for $214,000.

April Residential Sale Statistics

The Tucson Association of Realtors has released the residential sales statistics for April. The housing market recovery continues, and may be showing signs of stabilization. Prices are up slightly, number of sales is steady, but inventory is declining. Economics 101: low supply may cause high prices. It sure seems that most of the bargains have been snapped up.

Loan Deliquencies Down to Pre-Bubble Levels

According to a study by Lender Processing Services, only 0.84% of all mortgages that were current six months ago are now 60 days late. This is only slightly higher than the levels seen prior to start the housing bubble in 2004.

People who say that homeowners are losing their homes because they never qualified for mortgages haven't thought the matter through. Mortgage loan qualifications have been very strict since the bubble burst in 2007. People who shouldn't have been given mortgages lost their homes by 2009. People are losing homes now either because they lost their jobs or they lost their equity in their homes when the market became dominated by foreclosures and short sales. They are not reckless or foolish. They are responsible people who did everything right and were victims of the housing bubble and recession.

Distressed Sales Loosen Their Death Grip on Tucson Market

In April 2013, the Tucson Association of Realtors recorded 138 short sales and 288 sales of foreclosed properties. Distressed sales accounted for 31.6% of the total 1,348 sales in April.

What an improvement over April 2012, when we had 185 short sales and 413 sales of foreclosed properties comprising 42.7% of the 1,399 sales.

And if that sounds horrible (which is was), let me remind you of the really dark and scary days of 2011 (no, not that!), when 112 short sales and 512 sales of foreclosed properties were 49% of the sales in April two years ago. While short sales were 9% of the sales two years ago, foreclosed properties were 40% of the sales. Now banks have finally started to figure out that foreclosing is bad for people, banks and the economy (plus our government has finally stepped in to stop the worst of the foreclosure abuses). Last month 10.2% of the all sales were short sales and foreclosed properties accounted for 21.4%.

Short sales frequently sell for a little under market value, and bank-owned properties that a lender has taken back from a borrower in foreclosure almost always sell for way under market value. These low sale prices drag down the value of neighboring properties. The fewer houses we have selling at fire sale prices, the better for the majority of sellers who are not underwater or delinquent in their mortgage payments.