December Residential Sales Statistics

The Tucson Association of Realtors has released the Residential Sale Statistics for December.

With 886 units sold in December, we saw a 10.5% increase since the previous December, but a 12.4% decline from the previous month. I think this may be because the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit was due to expire on November 30, and buyers who didn't have a house in escrow in November (which would have closed in December) no longer had that incentive. At the very last minute, Congress extended the tax credit through April 30, and added a $6,500 tax credit for buyers who lived in a home they own for five of the last seven years. I expect we will see a resurgence in the first time buyer market in the first quarter of 2010.

Average sale price was $202,376, up 0.8% for the year and up 7.4% from November. Median sale price was $154,262, down 8.2% for the year and down 5.1% for the month.

Most of the action remains in the under $250,000 market. With 4,423 listings and 693 sales in December in this price range, we have a 6.4 month supply of these houses. This is almost down to the six month supply that is considered a balanced market.

In the $250,000 to $500,000 range, we had 1,618 listings and 141 sales, for an 11.5 month inventory.

The over $500,000 market will remain weak as long as buyers have difficulty getting loans in this price range. With 937 listings and 52 sales, we have an 18 month inventory.

Government-insured loans (FHA and VA) accounted for 50% of the financed sales. From 2004 to 2007, sellers would have laughed at the idea of considering an offer with FHA and VA financing, when conventional loans were available for no money down and no concerns about the condition of the house. In December, 43% of the financed sales used conventional financing, which requires at least 10% down payment now, excellent credit, and a house in very good condition. Amazingly, 236 of the 886 sales, or 27%, were cash sales. Cash can be the only way to buy some of the short sales and foreclosures that either were trashed by the previous owners or deteriorated while they sat vacant for months or years.

NYT Does Tucson

Did you see the incredibly dumb article about Tucson in the New York Times? It appears to have been written by someone who either has never deigned to visit Tucson, or resented being forced by a deranged editor to travel to the outback.

Did you know that "Tucsonians" (sic) are unjustly proud of our Mexican restaurants? Did you know that Cafe Poca Cosa has made a "vain attempt to import some glam L. A. style"? Did you know the bands at Plush are "less polished" than those at Club Congress? Did you know Plaza Palomino is downtown? Did you know the Ritz Carlton at Dove Mountain is in Tucson? Which do you think is a more memorable shopping experience: La Encantada (NYT's pick for "Phoenix-style shopping") or The Lost Barrio and Old Town Artisans?

Do you take visitors to the Titan Missile Museum and the Davis Monthan airplane bone yard? Me neither. Doesn't this New Yorker know about Mt Lemmon, and the unique opportunity to travel through five of North America's seven biozones in an hour? Apparently it wasn't in his Frommer Guide. He clearly didn't bother to talk to anyone while he was here, if indeed he was here, which seems unlikely, given that he states I-10 from Phoenix to Tucson is scenic! Yikes, that has to be the most boring drive in the West!

Plus, there's no need to waste time, money and gasoline flying into Furnix, as suggested by NYT, in order to get a round trip flight from New York for $351. If he'd talked to any frequent flyer in Tucson, he would have known you can fly direct from LaGuardia to Tucson with one stop (no plane change) on the fabulous and friendly Southwest Airlines for as low as $309.

The most obnoxious comment in this completely obnoxious article is the statement that Epic Cafe is populated by "would-be intellectuals". I wonder if living in New York City gives those city slickers the power to separate actual intellectuals from fakes with just a glance.

If we are lucky, this article will deter snobby arbiters of music, food and sophistication from darkening our doors. As Groucho Marx would say, "Go, and never darken our towels again!"

I wonder who you have to know to get one of these travel writer gigs. I know I can do way better at sussing out what's special and appealing about a town, without resorting to lame comparisons to L. A. and Phoenix. Tucsonans love Tucson because Tucson isn't L. A. or Phoenix!

TLC's "My First Home" is Coming to Tucson

My First Home is a half-hour series for TLC that focuses on the ups and downs of first-time home buyers as they undertake the most important purchase of their lives. They meet the buyers and learn what they are looking for and tell their story of how they found their first home. They will meet with the REALTOR who guided the buyers through each step as they search and find their new home. The show will combine the basic facts of home buying with the emotional journey of the buyers.

They are looking for couples who are outgoing, energetic, and interesting first-time buyers with a great story to tell. Every first-time buyer has a unique experience and wants to share these stories with other prospective first-time buyers.

All events that occurred during the buying process will be recreated. They are looking for the most memorable first-time buyers who closed between May 2009 and the end of December 2009. The bigger the personality and excitement for being on the show, the better the chance the buyers will be featured on the show.

There are no fees or costs to the REALTOR or Realty Company. If cast, they ask the REALTOR to be available during shooting and assist in finding homes that were similar to what the buyers saw during their search. During each half hour episode they will tour at least three homes (one is the actual home the buyers bought).

The production crew will travel to Tucson from Los Angeles and spend one week here recreating the home search and other events (home visits, inspection, meeting with lenders, etc.) as they happened.

All of the participants from the last three seasons had a great experience and enjoyed watching the final product. For more information on the show please go here.

They are looking for casting tapes to come in ASAP! The sooner they get a tape the better chance the REALTOR and buyers have of getting cast. The crew will be coming to Tucson in either January or February of 2010. Please contact Laura Kruszewski laura@tucsonrealtors.org or 520-382-8775 if you are interested.

Craig Childs

Last night Steve and I went to see Craig Childs at PCC. Craig is a fabulous nature writer who grew up in Arizona and lives in Colorado. He said he was delighted after arriving in Tucson by car at dawn Thursday morning to smell the delicious scent of rain. He talked about how the desert is all about water, and gave a Powerpoint presentation of photos he took of desert dunes and canyons. He puts himself in bizarre situations just to see what happens. For example, he enjoys burying himself in the sand in a remote desert, leaving only his head exposed, and staying that way for hours to see what kind of altered consciousness he can achieve. He was part of an international group of rafters and kayakers who made a first descent of a wild river in Tibet. The people who lived beside this ferocious river, which Craig said made the Colorado look like a joke, were horrified and begged them not to go. He showed us some videos of this muddy chaos taken from the bow of a catamaran.

Steve and I had the great privilege of spending a week on the Colorado River with Craig in 1998. We were on a commercial trip, and Craig was one of the guides. He was doing research for one of his many books about water. He was already appearing on NPR, so some of the rafters knew who he was and were very excited about having him for a guide. We were still clueless at that point.

Craig made a big impression on me because of two incidents. We were on an all-paddle trip, meaning no motorized boats and no oars. Everyone paddled every day. Lava Falls is largest fall on the Colorado River. It's also one of the scariest rapids because the huge black basalt boulders in the river have a rough surface that can tear a person up pretty good. Then there's always the possibility of a person swimming the falls and getting trapped under a boat or against a boulder. The power of the water is too much for mere humans to overcome. Hopi and white men ask for a safe passage from Vulcan's Anvil, a magnificent black cinder cone in the river upstream of the rapid.

When we got to Lava Falls, we all went up on an overlook to scout it and figure out the best path. Steve and I chose to be in the first boat to go through. The rest of the rafters were on the overlook, taking pictures as we went through, so I have a series of photos documenting what happened next. Steve and I were in the front of the raft, paddling in unison. Behind us were Craig and Steve's sister Lee. Behind them were Deb and George, a couple in their 60s. The head boatman Shay was in the middle back, telling us how to navigate the gigantic standing V-shaped wave we had to ascend with lots on power, going straight up the middle.

The photographic evidence shows Steve, Craig, Lee and me paddling in unison, even as we completely disappeared under the waves. In the back, Deb and George had their paddles in their laps and their hands over their eyes. We got part way up the V wave, and slid off the side. I fell out. I was under water a lot longer than I wanted to be. I surfaced, then went under again. When I came up, Steve grabbed me and held on through the rest of the rapids, then Craig and Steve pulled me into the boat.

My other favorite memory of that trip occurred in a flat, deep, narrow section of the river. The smooth Vishnu Schist walls shoot straight up for hundreds of feet. Craig asked everyone to be quiet. As we slowly floated in silence, he played his wooden flute. The music bouncing off the walls in that glorious place was ethereal. I told him last night, if heaven isn't like that moment, it should be.

He signed my copy of "Crossing Paths" like this: "For Donna and Steve and Lava Falls rising up around us".

Where the Deer and the Coyotes Play

I'm sitting at the counter at Desert's Edge, sending off an offer on a short sale. I had already seen a covey of ten quail looking for food on the hill among the prickly pears. Then I saw two beautiful coyotes, looking uncharacteristically healthy. With their bushy tails and auburn highlights and wild yellow eyes, they were a stunning sight. I've seen javelina and deer here, but these are my first coyotes at my sweet desert home.

Fourth Avenue Update

Last Saturday Steve and I had a Guatemalan dinner at Maya Queztal on Fourth Avenue. Then we walked south to check out Papa Moai at The Hut. Elsewhere in this blog (October 28, 2007), I have a photo of Papa Moai, a giant Easter Island head, when he was at Magic Carpet Golf. Sadly, Magic Carpet is another pathetic case of pave paradise and put up a parking lot.

Papa Moai (as Tucson's famous cartoonist Max Cannon calls him in his strip) has found a glorious new home at The Hut, where we have enjoyed many a concert by incredible local bands. The Hut really spiffed up their front patio to make a suitable new home for this magnificent work of folk art. Gone is the nasty asphalt parking lot with the painted parking spaces. After walking through a door in Papa Moai's chest and admiring the tee shirts for sale there, you are transported to a funky beach town. Key West and Tamarindo are some of the suggestions on the M*A*S*H-style directional post. The ground is covered with sand. Palm trees wave in the breeze.

Our bud Bob Lanning of Lanning Architecture reports that he designed the new base for Papa Moai. He says,"The 43,000 pound head was moved in one piece. We all (owners, engineers, builders, architects) analyzed the head as it stood over at Magic Carpet Golf and decided, for a number of reasons, that the best approach would be to move the head, without the shoulders, over to The Hut and then install it on a new structurally sound base (the base is essentially the part from the neck down). So the construction crews severed the head at the neck (which took 3 days; it was a process), used two cranes to lay it down in one piece on a cradle on a flat bed trailer, and hauled it across town to The Hut (that was a site, to see the Head rolling down Speedway!). Then much later another crane hoisted it up and placed it on its new base. Then all of the finish work, like the new plaster, paint, etc. was completed. I think they still have a few ideas that haven't been completed yet, like they want to install a smoke machine so smoke, at times, comes out of his nose!"

Then we continued south to check out the long-awaited Fourth Avenue underpass. I don't care what its detractors say, I like it. The walls are panelled with tile that look like rusted metal. Gone are the old Doric columns of the original underpass, replaced with larger, round columns with three incised rings. It's wider, brighter, and cooler than before. We regret we didn't know about the opportunity to have our faces immortalized on one of the tiles at the entrance. Besides interesting-looking Tucsonans, many pets and a chicken made the cut. We look forward to the first All Soul's Procession in the new tunnel this November.

The experience was enhanced by some wonderful buskers playing on the sidewalk in the middle of the underpass. A violin and a steel guitar filled the cavernous space with exciting gypsy music. The sign in the musicians' guitar case said they were going to Seattle early the next morning. I hope some other musicians fill the space with delight this weekend.

Emerging from the underpass, we checked out some of the galleries on Congress. Who could ask for more than to enjoy the auditory, visual and gustatory pleasures of downtown Tucson on a clear summer night?

Opa!

The Greek Festival starts Thursday, September 24 and goes through Sunday. Lots of fabulous food, music and dancing can be found at the St Demetrios Hellenic Center at 1145 E Ft Lowell, just west of Mountain.

When I lived a few blocks from here, I was always delighted to hear the joyous carnival atmosphere that filled the air.

Admission is $3 per person, and free for children under 12. If you visit between 5 PM and closing Thursday or noon to 6:30 on Sunday, you can go free, courtesy of Bill Anastopoulos of Bancapital Home Loans. You can meet Bill at the food booth.

I can't attach the free tickets to this email, but I can send them to you as a PDF, so send me an email and I will send you the tix.