Forbes: Tucson Best Place to Buy House

It is a mixed bag of news surrounding the Arizona housing market. Last month, Arizona led the nation in foreclosure rate: about one in every 300 Arizona homes received a foreclosure notice in March. Good news is — with so many homes on the market — that’s brought the median price of foreclosed homes down considerably in Pima County … to about $97,000 in March.

Because of this, online sites like realtor.com and forbes.com have placed Tucson Homes For Sale as the number one location to invest in nationally. Tucson hasn’t seen prices this low in a long, long time — meaning it’s a great time to buy. Only problem is, most people looking to buy also want to sell — and this is anything but a seller’s market.

“You’re going to get less for your house, but if you want to get out of it and get into something, now is the time to do it,”  says John Strobeck, president and founder of Bright Future Business Consultants. “Interest rates continue to be really attractive.  And you can get a house that you would’ve have been paying $3,000 a month five years ago … for probably $1200 to $1300 a month right now,” Strobeck says.

Single family homes and condos in Tucson are selling 12 percent faster than they were a year ago. Right now, houses are on the market about 86 days in Tucson compared to the national average of 111 days. In addition, investors are attracted to the presence of sizeable employers in Tucson, citing the University of Arizona, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Raytheon. Anybody who bought a home here five or six years ago knows firsthand how bad the market’s been locally.

Things are looking up in Tucson.

Carl F. Pepper, Realtor
carl@MyOwnArizona.com
www.MyOwnArizona.com
(520) 822-6575