Tucson airport (Oro Valley, Marana, Oracle: HOA, crime, hotels)

[milliebfit]

I have 2 questions. First how far is the airport from oro valley? When we move my husband will have to fly out of Tucson alot for business. With what I read about the traffic how long of a drive is it?
Second question-- we are coming to Tucson for a long weekend in Dec. to look at some homes. We are staying at a hotel near the airport. Is that a safe area?

[mb919]

Originally Posted by milliebfit

I have 2 questions. First how far is the airport from oro valley? When we move my husband will have to fly out of Tucson alot for business. With what I read about the traffic how long of a drive is it?
Second question-- we are coming to Tucson for a long weekend in Dec. to look at some homes. We are staying at a hotel near the airport. Is that a safe area?

If my memory serves me correctly, it takes about a half hour during "off times" and closer to 45 minutes during rush hours/busy times. When I was out there in February, I stayed in Oro Valley.

[tucsondesertdweller]

milliebfit. In my opinion, it takes at least 45 minutes to get from Oro Valley to the Tucson airport. Of course it depends on traffice. Realistically I would give myself an hour.
Airport area if ok, Depending on what area of town you will be looking at for houses, I would recommend you stay in that area.
I know you werre looking in Oro Valley, so I would stay maybe at the Holiday Inn Express in Oro Valley, its on Oracle Road and also on Oracle there are a lot of places to stay. That way you are saving time driving from Oro Valley back and forth several times a day. Also plenty of places to eat, etc on Oracle and vicinity.
Have you hooked up with a realtor or are you going to look on your own.
Before we moved here we always stayed up in the northwest area , came out for vacations and then spent a few days looking at housing .
My other suggestion is to subscribe to the Arizona Daily star newspaper , say on a Sunday.
You can also see most of the paper online at www.azstarnet.com
Hope this helps

Anyway just my opinion

[tucsondesertdweller]

Another thought for you Milliebfit. Not sure if you live in an area that has Homeowner Association. You need to really check out the association closely. Look over the rules, reg, cc$r's, etc. Make sure you and yours are ok with them, or can at least live with them.
Also if you go into a housing complex that is not completed or under developer control the hoa due's will be "low as the builder is subsidizing a lot of the costs.
Oro VAlley right now does not have a property tax, however we do pay property taxes to the county of Pima. Ok compared to N.J., you will be pleased, just keep in mind Oro Valley is itching for a property tax, it most likely will happen.
Welcome to Oro Valley and good luck!!!

[afvet]

mb919's time estimates sound about right. The airport is in the southern part of the city, which tends to be the higher crime area, but it looks to be farther south than the "bad" areas. I flew into the airport once and if I remember correctly as well, it's rather set apart from the rest of town and I didn't unsafe.

You may want to consider a hotel in Oro Valley if that's the area you're interested in. There's a nice Hilton and a Holiday Inn Express, both on Oracle.

[milliebfit]

Originally Posted by tucsondesertdweller

milliebfit. In my opinion, it takes at least 45 minutes to get from Oro Valley to the Tucson airport. Of course it depends on traffice. Realistically I would give myself an hour.
Airport area if ok, Depending on what area of town you will be looking at for houses, I would recommend you stay in that area.
I know you werre looking in Oro Valley, so I would stay maybe at the Holiday Inn Express in Oro Valley, its on Oracle Road and also on Oracle there are a lot of places to stay. That way you are saving time driving from Oro Valley back and forth several times a day. Also plenty of places to eat, etc on Oracle and vicinity.
Have you hooked up with a realtor or are you going to look on your own.
Before we moved here we always stayed up in the northwest area , came out for vacations and then spent a few days looking at housing .
My other suggestion is to subscribe to the Arizona Daily star newspaper , say on a Sunday.
You can also see most of the paper online at www.azstarnet.com
Hope this helps

Anyway just my opinion

yes we will have a realtor. we wanted to stay closer to oro valley but all the reasonable hotels were booked. I am not sure why that is because it is not a holiday weekend. So we are staying near the airport. That is why I was concerned about the area and the travel time. I want to thank you for your help I have been writing things down so we remember to ask the right questions. I will keep you posted

[tucsondesertdweller]

Not sure why all the reasonable hotels would be booked, but it is our tourist season. You should be fine if you stay in the hotel at night, not much around to walk to anyway.
Also there is an area in Marana right on the other side of the Interstate 10, that has a small complex of hotels/motels, a few chain places to eat, etc Cracker Barrell, Texas Road house, near a Kohl's and some new strip malls, this would get you to Oro Valley in 15-20 minutes.
You could ask your realtor. We had relatives that stayed there a few years ago after spending an unplesant night in a motel towards downtown

[afvet]

That's strange, tucsondesertdweller's comments weren't after mb919's when I posted last night- I didn't mean to just repeat his/her post.

The area mentioned in Marana would be where I'd chose if I were visiting. There are at least 3 hotels in that complex: a Days Inn and Suites, Super 8 and Days Inn, all on Cracker Barrel Rd. You may even find a home you like in Marana rather than Oro Valley, which could make commuting easier as the interstate would be convenient.

[ChrtnsMom]

Im a newbie to Oro Valley and Im finding the trip to the airport to run about 30 minutes....most of my family comes in on JetBlue which arrives late (11pm) so I am thinking a day time trip could easily be 1 hour....from Lambert & La Canada area