TheTucsonFoothills

beware of comcast, part 2

In an earlier post beware of Comcast I railed on about the poor TV reception we were getting from Comcast. It got so bad that we didn't want to sit down and watch TV for fear that it would end in frustration, because the picture continually froze, or disappeared completely. On off on off, all evening long.
During the month of June I called Comcast at least 10 times trying to get someone to fix the &^&%^& service.
One of the Comcast customer service reps that I spoke with, on the 4th or 7th call, offered that he had lived in 4 or 5 different houses, all with Comcast service, and had never had a problem. Kind of accusing me of making this all up, would you say. Despite that, they sent 4 different tech service guys here, 4 different times to fix the problem. And all of them were very nice, and seemed concerned, and did their best to solve the problem.

Nevertheless, after the first three tries, we were still having the same crappy service. But fourth guy finally got it. Thank goodness.
This was beginning to feel like one of those hobbies that you take up, and are now committed to, and now dread.
It took about three weeks, but everything's fine now.
And there was no great technical hurdle that Comcast had to leap either. The fourth service guy simply replaced the cable from the main box outside our house to the TV's inside our house. That was it. Presto!

What an ordeal. 3rd world tv service, and then you've got to hang around and wait for the tech guys to show up each time.
4 different times. 'someone will be there between 2 and 4'

So I was very surprised when the Comcast bill arrived for June, and they hadn't deducted a penny. Not a cent.

I was intrigued, and I had to get Comcast's thinking on this.
So I gave them a call and spoke with Crystal, and explained the entire situation. And to add insult to injury, Crystal, who is a supervisor at Comcast, offered to deduct the princely sum of $27.00 from our bill. She explained that since I had called Comcast 10 times in June, they would pro rate my bill and deduct the appropriate amount, $2.70, for each time I called. Do you believe that. I suggested that Crystal keep the 27 bucks.

If they're going to be that miserly, it might at least make a bit of sense to look at the number of days from the first time I called about the problem, to the day that the problem was finally solved, and then compute their $2.70/day based on that number of days. Which was probably 23 to 25 days. Whatever!

I'm sure these Comcast people aren't (that) ignorant, they just don't give a damn. They don't have to. They're a monopoly in the markets they're supposed to serve.
Comcast is the only choice where I live, and that's true for most consumers. And that stinks, just like their service.
Beware of Comcast.

beware of Comcast

I don't usually use this blog as my soapbox to vent about personal issues. But because of my extreme and long-term frustration with the poor service I've received from comcast, this time I'm going to make an exception. And bitch and moan and complain.

This has been going on for three or four months now, and getting worse as time goes by.
Constantly frozen images on the screen, then zap, no images,  everything's gone, nothing, then green pixilated images. 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 20 minutes, it depends.
And try watching an ON Demand Movie. As the name implies, you the consumer are (supposed to be) in control. That's a load of crap. There's no control whatsoever.
They don't start when you want, they don't pause when you want, and they don't stop when you want.

It's gotten to the point that we're reluctant to sit down and watch a basketball game or a movie, for fear that the evening will end in frustration, again, - me on the phone with comcast, again, and no game, no movie.
I've called comcast 8, 10, 12 times. I've lost track. I will say that I've been connected to a comcast person very quickly each time, and they've had three service techs out there in the last two weeks. They do get them out here. But they don't get anything done.

And they keep telling me 'everything checks out' and 'everything should work just fine now'. But it doesn't. This is like 3rd world TV service, it comes, it goes, hey I think the game's back .........
*^^%^&Y* soon, maybe,

I've asked them to fix it, so that it works like they promise it's supposed to work in their TV commercials and magazine ads, or when you sign up for service, or just tell me that they can't fix it.
So I can move back to DISH.

I had DISH in my last house - we couldn't get cable there - and in six years I never had a problem with DISH. It worked just great.
Stupid me, I thought cable would be even better, makes sense I thought, it comes in from that big fat cable instead of from thin air.

I live in 85718. I'd like to hear from you if you have issues with comcast.

Memorial Day weekend in the Tucson Foothills

Enjoy it!

see my web site thefoothillsToday.com
to search for and learn more about Tucson Foothills Homes

be the center of attention at your next cocktail party in the tucson foothills

don't get bogged down in all that drab talk about slower home sales and falling prices,  and woe is me ...
perk things up with some fast foothills facts that I guarantee no one knows (and no one cares about, but after a few drinks you'll have 'em all in the palm of your hand)

of the 577 homes for sale in the Tucson Foothills,
guess how many are,

in a gated community - 234
in School District 16 - 341
in TUSD - 118
in Amphi - 118
on a golf course - 38
masonry construction - 193
frame stucco construction - 344
metal, combo or other construction - 39
in an adult community - 2 are listed as, but they're not 
1 story - 436
2 or more stories - 141
connected to the sewer - 422
on septic - 129
on other - 1 (outhouse maybe?)
on nothing - 2 (here's why it's a good idea to make sure the toilets actually flush) 
on city water - 544
on a well - 5 
that leaves 28 with no water (look at the bright side, your icemaker will last forever, and there's always bottled) 
in a flood zone - 3
sante fe style - 36
territorial - 78
ranch - 60
mediterranean - 62
spanish - 18
southwestern - 91
contemporary - 191
colonial - 0 (sorry, you diehard midwesterners)
other - 15
1 bedroom - 1
2 bedrooms - 46
3 bedrooms - 192
4 bedrooms - 239
5 bedrooms - 83
6 bedrooms - 13
7 bedrooms - 1
8 bedrooms - 0
9 bedrooms - 1

how many have,

a basement - 15 (for you diehard midwesterners)
air conditioning - all 577 (we know what's important)
a pool - 318, ditto
RV parking garage - 6
horses allowed - 34
horse facilities - 1
a roof - all 577, ditto ditto

see TheFoothillsToday.com
to search for and learn all the really important things about Tucson Foothills Homes

Foothills News debuts

If you live in the Tucson Foothills you should have received the very first edition of Foothills News yesterday. At this point it's a
give-away, ad supported I guess, paper that is mailed to all residents  in the Tucson Foothills. The goal of Foothills News as stated on the front page " is to be the most comprehensive hometown newspaper possible for the Catalina Foothills "   I wish them luck. 
They're online too, TheFoothillsnews.com

Of course the first edition had an article on real estate. 
Titled, Real estate in the Catalina Foothills remains stable
the author Heather Stanton interviewed Tom Sloyan, president of the Tucson Association of Realtors for the article.
The gist of the message was that the Tucson Foothills is a more stable market because - it has the top public school district in Tucson, very desirable area, fewer homes are for sale, basic supply and demand coupled with the fact that there is relatively little opportunity for development in the Foothills because it has already been developed. It goes on to talk about the increased popularity of renovating older homes, knock-downs and land values.

All of that is true, and it's accurate and it's very welcome.
Because the media usually (no always) paints the Foothills with a broad brush that includes all of Tucson, and that's not an accurate picture.  I've chanted this stuff for a long time, most recently in
are the Tucson Foothills more resilient to a declining real estate market  And also on my web site at Foothills Market Trends.
And now I'm glad to see someone else address the particulars of the Foothills market.

One correction.
I don't know when this paper went to press, but in the last paragraph Heather states that only 38 homes have sold in the Foothills in 2008,
"too small a number to draw conclusions from" she says.

If that were true, and only 38 homes had sold so far this year, there'd be no talk about the Foothills being a more stable market.  
Through yesterday, 103 single family homes have sold in the Tucson Foothills, 152, if you include town homes and condos.

see TheFoothillsToday.com
to search for and learn more about Tucson Foothills Homes

a really big menu in the Tucson Foothills

Recently we've been wondering about growth in the Tucson Foothills, more houses, more shops and more mouths to feed.
To give you an idea of that growth, today you can choose from these 29 restaurants and more, that are in, or right next to the Tucson Foothills

The Grill at Hacienda del Sol - Ventana Room - The Flying V - Anthony's in the Catalinas - El Corral - Sullivan's Steakhouse -
Fleming's Prime Steakhouse - McMahon's Prime Steakhouse - Vivace - Tavolino - North - Vin Tabla - J Bar - Janos - Terra Cotta - Blanco - Acacia - Bluefin - Wildflower - Red Sky Cafe - Bluepoint Kitchen & Bar - AJ's Fine Foods - Firebird's Wood Fired Grill - Armitage Wine Lounge - ZinBurger - PF Chang's  - RA Sushi -
Shlomo & Vito's New York Delicatessen Tohono Chul Tea Room

just three years ago, you'd have had to be content with these 15,
from that same list

The Grill at Hacienda del Sol - Ventana Room - The Flying V - Anthony's in the Catalinas - El Corral - Sullivan's Steakhouse -
McMahon's Prime Steakhouse - Vivace - J Bar -Janos - Terra Cotta - Wildflower - Red Sky Cafe  - PF Chang's - Tohono Chul Tea Room

and five years ago, there were just 11 to choose from,

The Grill at Hacienda del Sol - Ventana Room - The Flying V - Anthony's in the Catalinas - El Corral -  McMahon's Prime Steakhouse  Vivace - J Bar - Janos - Terra Cotta -  Tohono Chul Tea Room

And all these restaurants (except Vivace, Tavolino & Schlomo) have web sites.
It ain't the old pueblo anymore, the Foothills have been discovered

see TheFoothillsToday.com
to search for and learn more about Tucson Foothills Homes

are the Tucson Foothills more resilient to a declining real estate market

There's a good real estate article in today's Wall Street Journal online that talks about, ' In Many Markets, the Outlook Varies Widely by Community'.

The article points out some of the things that make a particular community more desirable, and therefore more resilient to falling values in a declining real estate market, than neighboring communities.

And though the Tucson Foothills are not mentioned in the article, the similarities between the Foothills, and the communities featured in the article as holding up better than others, are unmistakable.
These are things that I have been chanting for a long time, both on this blog and to my home buyer clients.

The article is titled, 'Gauging Value In Real Estate As Prices Slide'

Here are some key points from the article that also apply to the Foothills,
- In this battered housing market, choosing the right neighborhood is more important than ever.
-One factor is well-known to home buyers: schools. Even if you don't have children, houses in high-ranked school districts generally retain their value better.
-don't overlook perhaps the most important variable of all: supply and demand. ...prices are tumbling hardest in places like Phoenix or Miami or Las Vegas, which were smothered in recent years by new construction. Yet it is apparent that some parts of Phoenix are substantially weaker than others.
-In many cities during the housing boom, developers ventured far afield to buy cheaper land, expecting that if they built it, buyers would come. And buyers did. But now they aren't so eager for two reasons: Gas is topping $3 a gallon, increasing their commuting costs, and the necessary infrastructure such as schools and retail and medical facilities often haven't sprung up yet.
-Just about anything sold in the hot market of 2004 and 2005, but now "it's location, location, location -- more than ever,"

In the Tucson Foothills,
-District 16, the school district for much of the Foothills, is considered by parents of school age children, to be a very good school district.
Many parents will only buy in District 16.
-the Foothills have not been plastered with new construction, there's been very very little, because there's no room to expand in the Tucson Foothills
-the Foothills are all about location, location, and an established community with a wide variety of housing that appeals to many different types of home buyers.
And in addition to it's natural beauty and lack of congestion, it's convenient to downtown Tucson, to retail, outdoor recreation, golf, hiking, dining, medical facilities and more.

One disclaimer. The supply of luxury homes in the Tucson Foothills and also other areas of Tucson, at about $1.3mil & UP, has gotten way ahead of demand. And I believe the luxury market has also crossed the line of buyer tolerance, as these homes are increasingly being built on less desirable home sites in the Foothills.

see TheFoothillsToday.com
to search for and learn more about Tucson Foothills Homes

the SmartMoney's on Tucson

"Not all places are created equal when it comes to weathering economic woes like the current real estate slump, credit crunch and slowing job market. Choosing the wrong place could carry serious ramifications"

From an article in SmartMoney, the Wall Street Journal magazine of personal finance and investing, that has named Tucson, AZ one of the 7 places to retire during an economic downturn.

7 Places to Retire During an Economic Downturn

Unlike other lists of ' best places to do this or that', and because SmartMoney is a magazine of personal finance, the focus here is on choosing cities not only based on lifestyle and a sunny climate and such, but on making a choice that makes good economic sense. 

                "Tucson is a dynamic, growing   retirement spot ..." 

"Expect real estate prices to remain solid, thanks to increasing interest in the area ..."

7 Places to Retire During an Economic Downturn

see TheFoothillsToday.com
to search for and learn more about Tucson Foothills Homes

whether it's a second home or a full-time residence, there's a lot to choose from in Ventana Canyon CC in the Tucson Foothills

Ventana Canyon CC is one of three very popular golf course communities in the Tucson Foothills. Located high in the foothills of the Catalina mountains, it's a very private, 24 hour guard-gated community that's home to two Tom Fazio designed golf courses, the Mountain and Canyon courses.

And whether it's a second home or a full-time residence, there's a lot to choose from in Ventana Canyon CC. With both townhomes and single family homes, the price range in Ventana runs the gamut from the low $400's up to $4.0 mil or more. Mountain views, homes on the golf course and spectacular city views, all in a very private golf course setting are just some of the attractions of Ventana CC.
Click Ventana Canyon CC Homes to see all the homes currently for sale in Ventana.

And see TheFoothillsToday.com
to search for and learn more about all Tucson Foothills Homes

it was not just the desert that lured the Marvins, but the house itself. Designed by the architect Josias Joesler in 1936, it was set on 12 acres,

There's a terrific interview in the Sunday Times UK Online edition with Pamela Marvin, widow of Lee Marvin.
Lee Marvin’s widow on her Arizona home and ...
She talks about how she and Lee Marvin discovered and fell in love with the desert and the great old Joesler house they bought in 1975 in the Tucson Foothills.
Now, Pamela 77, is putting the house in the foothills of Tucson, Arizona, where they found both love and peace, on the market for £3m. (it's $6,000,000)
 
See the listing here
This is a one of a kind home. In addition to being a historic Joesler estate in the heart of the old Tucson Foothills, it comes with some real Hollywood glamour, and, it's on the largest residential lot in the old Foothills, 12 acres. Unheard of these days.

See TheFoothillsToday.com
to search for and learn more about Tucson Foothills Homes

"Tucson in really good years will grow 2.5%, despite ...

I grew up in New York City and then I lived in Chicago for 20+ years. And every square inch of those cities have been paved over and built and re-built since before the beginning of time.
Growth in New York and Chicago meant knocking down a big old building and putting up an even bigger new one.

So I when I moved to the Tucson Foothills in 2000, I wasn't accustomed to seeing the kind of growth that's happening here. 
Oro Valley and the entire Northwest Tucson area, Southeast Tucson and Vail, plus the southwest and west Tucson areas, have grown tremendously in that short time. Where once there was desert - hundreds of homes, miles of roads and homes for Home Depots and Wal Marts have sprung up relentlessly. When you read about big growth in Tucson, those are the areas that you're reading about.

In the Tucson Foothills, which was pretty much built out when I moved here, the last large parcel of land was claimed by
Pima Canyon, the luxury home development built in 2001.
Since then, growth in the Foothills, has and will continue to be limited to the few and quickly diminishing number of good lots, and to what I charitably call, in-fill development. There just isn't any land available.

A recent article in the AZ Daily Star talks about current and future growth in Pima county and what's driving it. Some highlights,
Pima population growth to slow — microscopically
Pima County's rate of population growth will slow in the next seven years, but so slightly — despite the housing downturn — "you won't even notice," says planner David Taylor.
These are the latest forecasts from Taylor, of the Pima Association of Governments, and Marshall Vest, University of Arizona economic and business-research director.

Until at least 2015, annual growth rates will stay over 2 percent, where they've been for a decade-plus. "Tucson in really good years will grow 2.5 percent," Vest said. "In bad years, 2 percent."

The reasons: more retirees are moving here, along with people with "a heckuva lot more money," Vest said. "People are able to move here when they don't have a job, when they don't even need a job."
Some choose Tucson for second homes. The population is aging.

All of that is allowing the population to grow even when the economic slowdown could bring a drop in total jobs, Vest said.

 
And a lot of those retirees, and people with "a heckuva lot more money", choose the Tucson Foothills, because of -Location, Location, Location - there's nothing else like it in Tucson.
And though I have heard rumors that there are people who actually prefer these other areas of Tucson, I've never met one myself.
So as far as I'm concerned, it's just a rumor.

Second homes and retirement homes account for an increasingly large share of the homes that are sold in the Tucson Foothills. And as for the "heckuva lot more money" luxury home market, here's a look at how it's grown in the last 7 years:
In the years 2000 thru 2003, sales of $1mil+ homes in the Tucson Foothills ranged between 24 to 30 homes sold each year.
Then in 2004 that number jumped to 60 homes sold, then to 97 homes in 2005, and to 126 in 2006, about a 400% increase.
Yes, in 2007 that number slipped, to 91 $1mil+ homes sold.
But that's no surprise given the shenanigans of the financial markets and the resulting disappearance of jumbo loans.
 
The Tucson Foothills, along with Northwest and Southeast Tucson, will benefit from the continued growth that we'll see in all of Pima county, but unlike those other areas of Tucson - which will continue to expand out and get bigger and busier with more and more new homes and shopping centers and roads - the Foothills won't grow, and it won't get any bigger, it will just become more and more desirable because of what it has always been and continues to be.

See TheFoothillsToday.com
to search for and learn more about Tucson Foothills Homes,

out to dinner in Tucson

Last night we had dinner at the Red Sky Cafe at Plaza Palomino, which is just beyond the southern edge of the Tucson Foothills.
The Red Sky Cafe bills itself as New American cuisine, and does a good job of delivering the goods, with regard to the selections on the menu, the quality and preparation of the food, and all of it in a comfortable dining room with a very pleasant atmosphere.
Prices at Red Sky are at the upper end of Tucson restaurants, with appetizers priced from about $9.00 to $18.00 and entrees from $16.00 to about $38.00, for dinner. There were three of us for dinner, and the tab, not including tip, was $189.00.

We enjoyed our meal.
The appetizers, entrees, wine and desert, Delicious!
But the service, that's another story. After we were seated, we waited more than 10 minutes before anyone or anything arrived at our table. When the waitress did arrive, she was rushed and flustered.
OK I thought, here we go again. From then on the service alternated between good, to adequate, to no service at all. When our entrees arrived the waitress asked if we would like anything else. Yes, please, I would like another glass of wine. 10 minutes later, and about halfway through my dinner, there was still no wine and no waitress in sight. I got up and went to the bar to get it myself.
On and on it goes, I wont bore you with the details.
Unfortunately, in many Tucson restaurants, regardless of price, that's the way it is.
Hit or miss service, or worse, seems to be the rule.
It's frustrating and annoying and ends up putting a big dent in your enjoyment of the evening.
The Grill at Hacienda del Sol is one of my favorite places, I love to go there and sit out on the patio for dinner. The food's very good, and the atmosphere is incomparable. But the service can be embarrassingly bad. A while ago, I took some friends from Chicago to dinner there, and we spent most of the evening chasing down waiters and sending back food that we hadn't ordered, and trying to get the food that we did order.
We've had similar experiences at VinTabla, and other allegedly high-end restaurants in and around the Tucson Foothills.
And this is NOT a one-time thing, I wouldn't write about it if it were.
It happens often. And on those occasions where the service was particularly abominable, the restaurant has offered to comp the dinner, as payback I guess for the poor service. Great, so instead paying for a frustrating evening, you get to have it for free.
But whatever the issues are, poorly trained or not enough staff, it's a restaurant management problem. I don't blame the individual waiter or waitress.
 
One strategy that seems to work, is to sit at a table in the bar area, or better yet, at the bar itself, and have dinner there.
The waiters are always coming and going from the bar for drinks and wine, so you can snag them more easily. And if you're sitting at the bar, the bartender is always there to help you.
It's unfortunate, but now, before we go out to dinner, I have to mentally prepare myself to not 'lose it' over the lack of service.

a day in the Catalinas

Looking online at homes for sale in the Tucson Foothills, you're sure to see plenty of picture-perfect shots of the Catalina mountains.
The Catalinas are gorgeous, and the Kodak moments are great, but when you live with them everyday you soon realize that it's the many faces of the Catalinas that make them so really cool and wonderful.
Here's the view out the window of my home office.
After a rainy night the Catalinas were shrouded in clouds and fog,  


But as it began to lift, looks like snow!

Yes, we get snow in the Catalinas



But not for long, with the sun shining and the temperature in the 70's, the snow's gone before you know it.

cleaning out the attic

Have you noticed that when you move out of one house and into another, that you suddenly find yourself with a lot of stuff that you don't know what to do with. Either it won't fit in the new place, or you've finally resolved to not move that whatever it is, that you haven't touched in 15 years, one more time. Or you just don't like it anymore and you want to start fresh. 
Couches, chairs, lamps, beds, that really cool southwestern piece that looked great in the Sante Fe but doesn't quite make it in the contemporary you just bought. What to do. I've given a lot of it away to the salvation army, and other charities, but when I want to sell something I put it on craigslist, http://tucson.craigslist.org/ -that'll take you directly to the Tucson page on craigslist.
I've sold more stuff, cars too, and done it quicker and easier than I'd have ever thought possible on craigslist. And it's free and easy.
Sign up for a craigslist account, take pictures of the things you're selling, and create your own online ad.
Last time I moved, I had about 40 moving boxes that I just wanted to get rid of, quickly. I put them on craigslist as a for free item and within 30 minutes I had emails from 8 different people ready to come by and take them off my hands. They were gone in an hour.  Since then I've been hooked, and have sold or given away many things on craigslist. It works great, it's easy and it's free. You can't beat that.
And when it's just plain junk, and you can't sell it, or give it away,
go to 1800GotJunk.com. I've used them three times in the last year. These guys are a new twist on junk hauling.
You can book them easily on the internet at 1800GotJunk.com
They show up on time every time, they're nice guys, they get the job done pronto, they clean up and you're junk is gone.

the holidays, they're here

Let's face it, with the holidays here the drum beat of real estate is about to take a back seat to the enjoyment of family and friends, the celebrations of the season and the rigors of shopping.
Black Friday, the official start of the holiday shopping season in the United States is upon us. It's a shoppers day gone wild, with hordes of people cramming the big stores to take advantage of Black Friday sales. 
And for those with the stamina to jump into the fray, there are plenty of those big stores here in Tucson. You'll find them in and near
Park Place Mall, Tucson Mall and elsewhere.
But if you're looking for a different kind of shopping experience - less stressful, fewer crowds, and with smaller shops and boutiques - try the more intimate open air shopping plazas that are in and around the Tucson Foothills. They're southwestern styled plazas that encourage casual strolling, people watching and enjoying the day as you shop.  
Each of these plazas has it's own unique charm, special shops and an interesting selection of restaurants for lunch, dinner or a snack.
Click the web sites for more info on each-
 
Casas Adobes Plaza
 

St Philip's Plaza


Plaza Palomino


And the newest and largest, right here in the heart of the Catalina Foothills, La Encantada
 

Have a Great Holiday!

how are your petunias doing

The other evening I was at a cocktail party given by the Catalina Foothills homeowners association where I live. It was a close-knit neighborhoody kind of affair to welcome some new homeowners and introduce the board members of the association and other residents to each other.
After fueling ourselves at the bar and buffet, and introductions and opening remarks by the board members, we all broke up into little cocktail party-like groups. And eventually, and inevitably, the conversation turned to real estate.
Everyone at this little soiree was a homeowner, some of us new homeowners in this area, so everyone had a vested interest in how the market was doing here in the Foothills. And since I was the only Realtor in attendance, I was prepared to be dragged into the middle of discussions of real concern and worry about the current market.
But it wasn't like that at all. The tenor of the conversation was more one of curiosity - by people who were interested, but just kind of mildly interested - than of concern.
No one seemed worried by the slower real estate market here in the Foothills. No one seemed terribly concerned that home values in the Foothills were going to drop significantly, or that the current woes would have any long term effects.
On the contrary, people seemed very content and happy to be living here, and after a little bit of real estate talk, were more interested in talking about just about anything -baseball, gardening, even politics - than worrying about the slow real estate market.
It was very refreshing, and reassuring. And I discovered that there is life out there, beyond the suffocating barrage of dire reports and predictions from the local and national media and the increasingly in-bred buzz of we Realtors and bloggers.

something's happening here

It happens every year like clockwork. As summer arrives in Tucson, with temperatures hovering above 100, second home owners and winter visitors migrate back to their primary residences in cooler climes. And since we have a lot of second home owners and winter visitors, the roads, shops, restaurants and just about everything else in the Tucson Foothills are half-full, or half-empty, or less.
I never think about making a reservation for dinner in the summer at all but the most popular, or reservation required places.
You could walk into most restaurants without a reservation and get seated immediately, and sometimes they were so nearly-empty that you felt like an intruder. I wrote about this at the beginning of summer in 102 in the shade, and in hindsight, I wish I'd waited to write that piece. Because I've been out to dinner at quite a few restaurants since I wrote 102 in the shade, and this year for some reason, it's a whole different story. Every restaurant has been full or nearly full, and often we've had to wait for a table, sometimes as long as 45 minutes. These places have been jammed, with people waiting at the bar for tables and waiting outside in the heat. And I'm talking about week nights, Monday thru Thursday. I can't imagine what happens on the weekend.
I don't get it. And to add to the mystery, a lot of big new restaurants have opened in the Tucson Foothills in the last couple of years, a few of them in just the last few months - Big restaurants with many tables and big bars that seat lots of people. What's going on?
Are more second home owners staying here for the summer, are we suddenly getting an influx of summer visitors, have people given up cooking for the summer, are the new restaurants in the Tucson Foothills attracting a new crowd from all over Tucson, or, are people just eating out a lot more?
If you've found yourself waiting for a table on a Tuesday evening when it's 102, I'd like to hear your theory on what's happening.

the Foothills lifestyle

For a long time now I've said    '...the Foothills is pretty much built out, so that what you see is what will be, with few exceptions',
But now I find that I've got to back-pedal on that statement a bit.
On June 14th I wrote Last Big Development which talked about the 54 new homes that A.F.Sterling was building in the Foothills along Sunrise Dr by La Paloma, along with new commercial/retail space.
Then in New Concept for the Tucson Foothills I wrote about RiverWalk, a new development of 120 homes, plus restaurants and shops, that offer a style of housing and lifestyle that has not been available in the Foothills, 'til now. 
When I made the' pretty much built out' statement, I was thinking -traditional Foothills residential - an acre lot for one single family home. There are very few of those lots available.
But the developers, builders and investors, have found a way to utilize land that doesn't fit with that traditional concept of Foothills living, and in doing so, to broaden that concept and introduce new types of housing and lifestyle choices.
I never thought I'd be saying this, because I'm crazy about the traditional Foothills style of living, it's why I moved here, but I welcome these new concepts, and think they'll be very good for the Foothills. They're going to introduce the Foothills to people who are not interested in the traditional Foothills lifestyle, and probably wouldn't have considered living here, 'til now.
I think this all started -though maybe that wasn't the intention- with the explosion of new condos that have become available in the last couple of years in the Foothills. The new condos have made low maintenance, moderately priced housing in an upscale area, available to a lot more people.
You can buy a one bedroom condo in the Foothills in a great area for around $150K. While you could do the same thing a few years ago, there was a very limited supply of condos in the Tucson Foothills and they were mostly bought, sold and inhabited by second home-owner winter visitors. Today, with many more condos available in the Foothills, I see a lot of younger people interested in buying a condo as their primary residence in the Tucson Foothills.
Riverwalk, and to a lesser extent the A.F Sterling homes in Paloma Ridge, have begun to turn the definition of Tucson Foothills living on it's head. And that's a good thing, because it will add a new dimension to what it means to live in the Foothills, and in doing so broaden the appeal of the Tucson Foothills and help to diversify the population.

The Tucson Foothills, featured in the New York Times

In today's New York Times, both online and in print, there's a big article about the Tucson Foothills. For this article, which appears in a regular Friday column called HAVENS, I had the pleasure of working with the writer from the New York Times, Paul Smalera.
Paul was great, and so for me it was a lot of fun and very similiar to working with a home buyer from out of town, except that Paul was constantly taking notes about the things we saw and the things I said. As we drove around the Foothills I gave him an overview of the Foothills real estate market and showed him the different communities and the types of homes that were available, who was buying in those communities, prices and market trends and the changes that had occurred in recent years. Since the thrust of the article is about second homeowners, Paul asked if I had some second homeowner clients who would agree to be interviewed. Paul and Marianne Pellegrino, who were gracious enough to make themselves available and agree to be interviewed and recorded, are quoted frequently throughout the article. It's a really terrific piece and wonderful exposure for Tucson and the Tucson Foothills.

GREAT HOMES / GREAT HOMES | June 15, 2007
Havens| Tucson Foothills:  Cleared to Tee Off or Take Off
By PAUL SMALERA
Golf, high-end shops and a popular airpark draw second-home buyers to the foothills of North Tucson, Ariz.

knock-knock

Who's there?

Barbeques Galore

Fantastic!
A few weeks ago I ordered one of those barbeque islands for my house. Nothing too fancy, just a 7' island with a nice grill built in, a couple of storage drawers and a small bar counter at one end, so people could keep me company while I burnt their dinner.
And now the big day, the guys were here to deliver and install it. Barbeques Galore had called me a few days before to let me know that it was all built and painted and that they could deliver it on Wednesday at noon. Perfect!
When you get a new grill, you want to break it-in the right way.
So we invited some friends over for margaritas, steaks, chicken and anything else that could be grilled, on Thursday,
the next evening.
The island needed to be maneuvered this way and that way to get it through the courtyard door because at the bar end it was wider than the doorway- and they couldn't maneuver it too well since it weighed about 700 lbs, and they were afraid of scraping it and scratching it, and in the end, they couldn't get it in. And I couldn't believe it.
I didn't get any pictures of that, - I was too pissed - and I was doing my best to convince them to try it this way and that way, and every which way.
So back on the truck it went.

Meanwhile the manager of Barbeques Galore called me to apologize and let me know that they would do their best to get it in as soon as possible. Great. As soon as possible like when.
Five minutes after that my wife pulled up with shopping bags full of food for Thursday nights shindig. ooh, she was pissed too.
We were like two kids that had had their toys taken away from them.
But Barbeques Galore came to the rescue. They showed up the next morning, and this time they brought a little extra muscle



The grill was in in plenty of time for Thursday's shindig.
And Barbeques Galore apologized again for the delay and the inconvenience, and didn't charge me a nickel extra for the extra muscle. I love Barbeques Galore.

Tucson, one of the hottest markets, still

About three weeks ago I ran this piece by Kendra Todd - Best Places in the U.S. to Buy a Home It was the featured real estate news story on Yahoo, at the very top of the section and it offered a very sunny outlook for Tucson real estate. Today (December 21st) I noticed that Yahoo is still featuring this same piece by Kendra at the top of their real estate news section. That seems weird, almost three weeks at the top of the Yahoo real estate news section? Why? Is it that Yahoo is trying to accentuate the positive. They have lots of other material to choose from, and I've never-ever seen Yahoo run the same column for anywhere near this length of time. But I'm not complaining, you gotta like what Kendra has to say, "... I think Tucson will be one of the hottest markets in the next five years". That sounds a lot like the predictions we were hearing from real estate guru's about Tucson a year and a half ago. And the criteria that Kendra cites are pretty much the same as those cited before the blitz of gloom and doom brought the house down - A strong trend toward appreciation, A strong local economy, A 'wow' factor that attracts people, Solid in-migration to the area. Those factors were true then and they're still true now.

Best Places in the U.S. to Buy a Home By Kendra Todd

November 11, 2006 While the alarmists continue to jabber on about a real estate bubble, the fact is that real estate is regional, not national. That means while many overpriced markets are cooling off, others are poised to take off in the next two to three years. In this column, we're going to look at some of the most promising places to buy a home in the U.S. (read full column)

Tucson, Arizona - The largest city on this list with more than 512,000 residents, Tucson is the antidote to the overheated Phoenix/Scottsdale market. With a projected appreciation of 5.7% and an average three-bedroom home price of about $211,000, this city offers the option of living in the warm, dry Arizona climate for a very affordable cost. I think Tucson will be one of the hottest markets in the next five years.