The Gem Show is Back!

Yesterday Steve and I went to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show with our buds Carol and John. We started at Inn Suites, always the home base of some great dealers. I have the advantage of living with a Gem Show devotee, who has gone to the Show religiously for 24 years, so he even knows which rooms have the best dealers. Steve showed us a room with cases full of gold nuggets and gold in quartz matrix. I learned about a new mineral, called electrum, which is a combination of gold and silver. Electrum has an amazing range of formations, including some feathery specimens.

Besides seeing the rocks, we get to talk with people from all over the world. The gold guy is an Aussie, and I could listen to him tell bad jokes all day, just to hear his fabulous accent.

Every February, we're grateful that we live here and don't have to pack our bags, put the cat in a kennel and pay the exorbitant hotel rates to enjoy this phenomenon.

Pima Canyon

Steve and I went for a hike in Pima Canyon yesterday with our friends Garrett and Paul and new friend Sergio. The sky was almost cloudless, and the temperature was perfect. We saw this cristate saguaro. Garrett said it looked like the saguaro was giving us the hang loose hand gesture. How appropriate, as our first Hawai'ian president prepares to take office.

December Residential Sales Statistics

As usual, The Arizona Daily Star found a way to put the worse spin on the housing news. They report that pending contracts--home purchase contracts that are somewhere in that twilight zone between offer acceptance and transfer of ownership--hit an 11 year low at 641 in December.

Who cares about pending contracts? Sales fall apart because the buyer can't get financing, the seller can't or won't do repairs, and lots of other reasons. What I want to know is how many properties have new owners? How many sales actually closed escrow?

The Tucson Association of Realtors reports that 775 units sold in December, a 22% increase from the previous month, and a 2.92% increase from the previous December.

The good news for buyers, and bad news for sellers, is the average sale price was $200,055 last month and the median sale price was $167,900. These numbers are down 22% and 20% respectively from the previous year. They are comparable to the average and median sale prices in spring and summer 2004.

Part of what is dragging the prices down is that many of the sales are short sales (the lender allows the mortgagor to sell for less than the mortgage balance) and foreclosures (the lender has taken the house back from a delinquent mortgagor). When an appraiser appraises a house so a new buyer can get a loan on it, the appraiser has to use comparable sale data to determine the value of the house. Even if the appraiser is evaluating a house that is not being sold under duress, if the nearby sales were at low prices because of short sales and foreclosures, the appraiser has to use those sales on the appraisal.

Those of us who bought our houses before prices begain to skyrocket in 2004 may feel we have lost a lot of equity in our homes. But the equity was only in theory on paper. Unless we sold sometime in 2005 or 2006, that theoretical equity is money we never had. If you bought in 2004 or earlier, and you have maintained your home or even improved it, you can probably sell your house for as much or more than you paid for it.

Those of us who bought in 2005 or later (I am in both the before and after groups), or who took out home equity loans on houses bought earlier, may have to recognize that our houses are worth less than we owe on them. If these folks need to sell their houses for some reason, they could be in a difficult situation.

Tucson Attractions Passport

Here's a discount program you can really use. For $15 you get 2 for 1 admissions to Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, Old Tucson Studios, Tucson Children's Museum, Tucson Electric Park (hurry before the last of the baseball teams abandons us at the end of the spring training!), Tucson Museum of Art, Fox Theatre and Tucson Symphony Orchestra. http://www.visittucson.org/visitor/attractions/passport/discounts/
You'll also find discounts at local malls, DeGrazia Gallery of the Sun and other places where you can do your patriotic duty and stimulate the economy. Everyone wins.

Maynard Dixon at TMA

We went to see the Maynard Dixon exhibit at the Tucson Museum of Art today. Dixon is a California artist who was in love with Arizona even before he saw it. He spent the last years of his life living at the edge of town in a adobe house on Prince Road west of Tucson Blvd. The Ronstadts were his neighbors. He painted the ever changing light on the Catalina Mountains over and over again. He never got tired of it, of course, and neither can any other desert rat.

His paintings and drawings would be enchanting even if they didn't glorify the glorious Arizona desert. To see our beloved mountains captured so elegantly is a real treat.

The show ends February 15. The first Sunday afternoon of every month, the museum is open free of charge.

2001 W Calle Armenta

It's been a long time since I've seen a house this nice in this price range in Tucson. With short sales and foreclosures dominating the under $200,000 market, entering this lovely owner-occupied home is a stunning relief.

First, there's the great old Desert Hills neighborhood, three miles east of the David Yetman Trailhead, and less than three miles west of U of A. This is why I love the west side of Tucson. You can have nature and urban amenities at the same time.

Burnt adobe construction, a fireplace in the living room, a real dining room, and beautifully upgraded kitchen and bathrooms are just for starts. The back porch has been enlarged so now it actually has room for monsoon watching and year round dining. The gigantic back yard has been professionally xeriscaped, and features a raised vegetable garden.


Three bedrooms, two baths, 1,409 square feet. Sold February 6 for $185,000. Listed by Donna Moulton, Realty Executives Southern Arizona.

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

A $7,500 tax credit is available to first-time home buyers who purchase a home between April 9, 2008 and July 1, 2009. For the purposes of this tax credit, anyone who has not owned a primary residence within the last three years is considered a first-time home buyer.

Single taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 qualify for the full tax credit. The tax credit works like an interest-free loan and must be repaid over a 15-year period.

For more details, check here.