Odyssey Storytelling

I always like to brag about my amazing clients, and here's one who will be famous for more than fifteen minutes. Adam Hostetter was interviewed on Arizona Illustrated about the Odyssey Storytelling event at Club Congress this Thursday at 7 PM.

Adam writes a fabulous blog about his conversations in airport bars. Check it out.

An Original Rock Opera Here This Weekend

Graphics and Poster design by Maria A Sans Fuentes .

Another talented client, Hoshin Gupta, has co-written a rock opera that will be performed in concert with the Zuzi Dance company this weekend.

His musical ensemble, Water on the Rocks, has teamed up with Zuzi! to put on "Like a Lotus Resting in Fire: The Great Dance" a theatrical production to benefit Casa De Los Ninos. Come see an amazing show, enjoy an evening of music, dance and poetry, and help support a great cause.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, May 15, 16 and 17 at 7:30 PM and Saturday and Sunday matinees, May 16 and 17 at 2:00 PM.

General Admission $20; Students and Seniors $15. Advance Tickets are on sale at ZUZI! Dance Company (520-629-0237). Tickets can also be purchased at the door before the shows at ZUZI’s Theater in the beautiful and historic YWCA at 738 N. 5th Avenue, just south of University Boulevard.

Living Green

My client Pamela Portwood is an interior designer who owns the green design company Greener Lives LLC. The Renovation Nation show on the Planet Green television channel recently visited Tucson to talk with a family who hired Pamela to help them design a non-toxic, environmentally-friendly nursery.

April Residential Sales Statistics

The Tucson Association of Realtors has released the Residential Sales Statistics for April. The average sale price was $193,351, down 5.3% from the previous month and down 23.8% since April 2008. Median sale price was $164,000, down 0.61% since March and down 15.9% since last year. However, except for a blip upward in February, the median sale price has been stable since the first of the year.

882 units sold, which is down 1.12% since March and down 13.1% since last year. The good news is active listings continues to decline, reaching 6,890 in April, which was down 7.08% from March and 21.78% since last year.

The reduction in number of houses for sale means we continue to get closer to a balance market, which is a six month supply of listings. With 6,890 active listings and 882 sales in April, we now have a 6,890/882 = 7.81 month inventory.

Getting a jumbo mortgage (over $417,000) usually requires 30% down payment and involves a 2% jump in the interest rate above the current 5% rate offered on conforming loans. So the luxury market will suffer until lending restrictions are loosened. Only seven properties priced over $750,000 sold last month. Similar to last month, 87% of the sales were of properties priced under $300,000.

Housing Opportunity Index

The National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo have released the Housing Opportunity Index for the fourth quarter of 2008. The HOI measures the percent of houses sold in each of 222 cities that were affordable to a family earning the median income. The index assumes the family will spend 28% of their gross income on their house payment.

The median income in Tucson was $55,000 and the median house sale price was $170,000, according to this study. This makes 64.1% of our houses affordable to the average family. We ranked 132 in affordability nationally.

Lots of other data are available at this site. It's interesting to see how interest rates affect affordability. Obviously, with interest rates currently at historic lows, a family's home buying dollars will stretch a lot further today than they will when interest rates go back up to more normal levels.

Real Estate Transfer Tax

A real estate transfer tax (RETT) is charged at that time a property is sold. While our city, county and state governments are not currently considering a RETT, it has been the topic of revenue enhancing proposals in the past. With our governments running deficit budgets these days, the RETT is likely to rear its ugly head again.

What's wrong with a RETT? Plenty. We already pay property tax. This would be double taxation. It is only charged to property owners who sell, so it is discriminatory. It reduces a seller's equity, and is a further impediment to selling. As if sellers need any more challenges in this market!

The Arizona Association of Realtor is currently collecting signatures so a state wide ban on RETTs can be put on the November ballot. They need 230,000 signatures by early July. We won't know the proposition number until the signatures are validated.

Once we know the proposition number, we will be spreadng the word to vote YES. A yes vote will prohibit state, county and city governments from ever imposing a real estate transfer tax.

For more information, go to No New Tax On Our Homes.

Mountain Oyster Club

Last month I had some buyers who used to be members of the Mountain Oyster Club, which was at the southwest corner of Stone and Franklin in the old Jacome Mansion. The Mountain Oyster Club's website states that according to legend, the club was originally founded in 1948 by ranchers who got thrown out of the more staid country clubs. The Jacome mansion was the club's home for 30 years until for various reasons the members moved to a new location.















Subsequently, someone tried without success to open a restaurant in the former club headquarters. Now the old 14,000 square foot mansion is for sale for $1,000,000 and my buyers wanted to see whether they could turn their old club back into a home.

While the project wasn't feasible for my buyers, it was fun to see the inside of this amazing building. A dome visible from the outside covered a second story swimming pool, surrounded by columns.

I was particularly intrigued by the murals done by a naive Tucson painter named Corona. I couldn't find out more about him, but I'm told his murals were all over town. I especially liked his use of small round mirrors in the paintings.

I sure hope someone can rescue this old Tucson treasure. It is listed with Ron Campbell of Long Realty Company.