Green Acres Meets Old Pueblo

Live your dream of urban farming. The owners of this sweet Garden District home have been working the soil and creating a wonderful home for several years. In the far corner of the back yard, you see a spacious chicken coop that awaits your flock of hens.

Composting bins produce rich gardening soil. The blue tank is for the washing machine grey water. Between the house and the chicken coop you'll find that rich soil with irrigation lines ready for you.  After doing the garden and digging the weeds, relax in your sauna.

Stay cozy on cold winter nights by the wood burning stove in your tin-roofed straw bale ramada. This unique home has character to spare.

Tasteful colors inspire energy and harmony.Dual cooling for energy efficiency and comfort.

The low-care brick floors throughout will delight you.The floor plan is here.

Great location on a quiet street just three miles from U of A. Tucson Botanical Gardens, Trader Joe's,  and Crossroads Festival are just blocks away. Tucson Medical Center, The Loft Cinema and the lovely Rillito River Bike Path are just a little further.

Be the envy of your friends. Enjoy home-grown food plus all the benefits of city life. Have it all.

This sweet home sold for $110,000 on Cinco de Mayo.

Price Reduced on Lovely North Campbell Estates Home

First time on the market in 48 years! Don't miss this lovely mid-century home in desirable North Campbell Estates. Just two blocks to all the shopping, restaurants, coffee shops and services on Campbell Avenue, and a mile and a half north of University of Arizona. You snooze, you lose.

As you step up to the gaily-painted covered front porch, the entrance encircles and welcomes you. This beautiful home takes you back to a simpler time. You'll be delighted by the soaring beamed ceilings, Saltillo tile floor, massive fireplace and huge windows in the living room.

Stone floor in the dining room and adjacent family room.

The sweet kitchen has tons of character with its Talavera tile counter and window overlooking the private patio.

Large corner lot in a highly desirable neighborhood. Mature eucalyptus trees. Block wall encloses east and south yards. Versatile floor plan with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The family room and den create office and guest room possibilities. Storage room or workshop, shed, and large laundry room.    

The interactive floor plan is here.  This lovely home sold on May 30, 2014 for $245,000.

FHA Reduces Loan Limits

The maximum FHA loan amount for a single family house in Pima County is $316,000. For purchase contracts initiated after December 31, the loan limit will be reduced to $271,000.

To check loan limits in other counties, go here.

National Recognition for All Souls Procession

We are so blessed to have this marvelous event in Tucson. HuffPo has an article and video that do a good job of explaining the magical power and spirit of the All Souls Procession.

October Residential Sales Statistics

The Tucson Association of Realtors has released the Residential Sales Statistics for October.

We are seeing a return to a normal market. Although average sale price has increased 9.43% in the past year to $192,433, prices are stabilizing. Typically in Tucson, number of sales and sale prices decline from November through January. The hectic spring buying season will resume in February.

Number of active listings has increased 9.67% from September to 5,173 in October. Surprisingly, the number of sales increased 7.52% from September to 1,130 in October. Dividing 5,173 listings by 1,130 sales, we have a 4.58 month inventory of listings. This higher than last spring, but still an indication of a strong seller's market.

I'm glad to see the number of distressed sales is now way below 50% of the total sales. A few years ago, short sales and foreclosures were over 60% of the sales. It's also encouraging that only 8% of the sales in October were short sales, and 17% of the sales were properties that had been foreclosed. As prices rise, fewer sellers are underwater, so the need for short sales is decreasing.

Sunset on the Tucson Mountains. And the Catalinas and Rincons, Too.

David Fitzsimmons is right, as usual. Any survey of the best sunsets that doesn't have Tucson at the top of the list is not a valid survey.

More than half the time, the sunset in Tucson is most stunning to the North or even to the East. Can you do that, Florida?

The ultimate sunset is a combination of pastel-colored air, fanciful clouds, light-reflecting mountains and gorgeous landscape. Not, as Monty Python would have it, "some farcical aquatic ceremony."

Inaccurate Listing Information

When I meet with new buyers, I tell them to avoid using third party real estate advertising sites like Trulia and Zillow in their house hunt. These sites obtain their information through a listing distribution system. The sites have plenty of misinformation, which is frustrating to the buyers and can even cost the seller a sale opportunity.

For example, a large percentage of the listings shown on these sites are already under contract or have already sold. Some of the houses are not for sale and never will be. The sites will list properties for which a notice of foreclosure sale has been recorded. The house may eventually auctioned for cash, as is, on the court house steps, but it may not. A buyer who needs a mortgage and wants to see the house before buying it will not be able to buy it.

Because anyone can post to these sites, scammers will steal the photos from a legitimate listing, post it for sale or for rent at a price that's too good to be true, and get prospective buyers or renters to send personal information and deposits to the scammers.

These third party sites are unconcerned with the inaccuracy of their listings. I have a listing with one full bath and two three-quarter baths, which is a bathroom with a shower, no tub. Harmon Homes has it listed as having a full bath and two half baths, which is a powder room with no bathing facilities. I wrote to Harmon Homes and told them to correct this. Their response was that this has been a problem from the beginning, and most people don't know what a three-quarter bath is anyway.

These sites get our listing information for free, and then try to sell it back to us. Next to my listings on these sites, you will see the photos and contact information for three Tucson agents who aren't me. Buyers are encouraged to call those agents for information on my listing. If I want buyers to call me for information on my listing, I have to pay each of these websites hundreds of dollars each to have my contact information next to my listing.

The Austin Association of Realtors has decided end their cooperation in this misinformation scheme.