Friend House-Hunting in Tucson (Green Valley, Three Points: low income, sales, rentals)

[brightdoglover]

A friend of mine is planning to move to the Tucson area next year and is trying to work with buyer's agents from her home in Utah. She is retiring as a uni professor and is very low income when she moves to Tucson. She says that small, affordable houses are sold in a snap (and that is all she can consider or wants) and says that a lot of people must be moving to Tucson.

Is that true, are a lot of people moving to Tucson? Or are cash buyers/investors snapping up properties for rentals or flips? From what people on this forum and elsewhere say, Tucson is not a happening place in terms of jobs/pay/economics or business growth. Does anyone have any particular insight into these houses being sold so fast?

[Jukesgrrl]

In my area (the NW suburb) houses haven't gone back to the selling prices they were prior to the recession and the housing crash, but there has been some upward movement recently. Many buyers (particularly investors) see this, therefore, as a time to purchase before prices go higher. Also, there were very few new houses built here between 2008 and 2012, particularly at the lower price range. That means the inventory hasn't expanded. So when there are buyers in that market, competition for the newish house will have increased, further driving up prices.

Look on the bright side of it — your friend can still get a house here for far less than the same house would have cost in 2006. What does your friend define as "affordable"? Is she flexible about what part of the metro she wants to be in?

Several houses have been sold in my neighborhood this spring. More than have gone in one season for many years now. But prices are still depressed by my standards. I paid $275,000 in 2005 in a newer subdivision. If I were to put it on the market today, I seriously doubt I could get $200,000 and I've improved the property over the builder grade it was. At the lowest point of the recession, a neighbor sold the same model I live in for $159,000. But I still see this sales flurry as very tenuous — because the job market in Tucson remains bad.

[brightdoglover]

My friend wants to buy well under $100k, including maybe a mobile. She doesn't want and can't afford a subdivision. She wants a semi-rural proprty- something with a little space and a vista, not closed-in in-town. She is OK with a semi-sketchy area. I think she had her eye on an area called ?Two Points? I think. I'm talking about a one- or two-bedroom house, undoubtably older-to-old. She's flexible about the area but not the price, meaning she's only interested in very cheap areas. I've seen such houses on realtor and all, just didn't know that they were selling fast or selling at all. I do wonder if she's going to get into owning a real problem shack or something. She has owned a very dilapidated trailer and didn't seem to be able to do a mental analysis of whether it was worth it or salvagable.

Regarding the job market, as I said, my friend will be retiring early on very short money. She thinks she might have to teach a class or two at, say, community college. Again, I wondered if that's even available, but I'm quite a pessimist when it comes to work and jobs in most places, never mind a place where people have already said that wages are low, if there are any jobs at all. Thank you for your response.

[brightdoglover]

That would be the area called Three Points.

[jksn75]

She should also look into rural areas in Sahuarita. She may be able to find a condo or decent mobile home in Green Valley for under $100k. It would be a better area than Three Points.

[CheyDee]

The Tucson MLS is online. If your friend puts in $90,000 for the maximum price and clicks on "Residential", 989 results come up (right now). Your friend can add additional criteria, such as one level, if she only wants a one level home. If she wants to narrow it down to Three Points, she could put that in the location box. It may be too early for your friend to jump on anything, but she can see what's around currently in her price range.

[beTucsonan]

I don't see the cheap houses in Tucson being grabbed up terribly quickly unless they are underpriced to begin with. There are, as CheyDee mentioned, quite a number of listings under $100K available and I've personally noticed that many of these have been listed for quite some time.

If your friend is looking for land, most search engines (such as Long Realty, and Zillow, for example) will let you specify and amount of land in addition to the price range and property type.

The "area" near Three Points is a pretty huge tract of land, some of it great, some of it really bad. Most of it is just fine, out in the middle of the desert. There would be little in the way of services available out there, so I do I agree with the previous poster who mentioned that it might be better to look in the Sahuarita/Green Valley area since it will be closer to things you may need.

I hopped onto longrealty.com did a quick search for properties around Tucson, with at least an acre of land, and under $100K and got 86 results - some of these places look like pretty decent plots of land with serviceable mobile units on them .... worth a look.

[brightdoglover]

Thank you for posting. My friend is not looking for land, but for a very modest house with some sense of space/vistas. I think she is fine without services or minimal ones, and a mobile home is fine with her, too. I do think the houses that are being "snapped up" might be those that aren't mobiles that might have some sort of charm, like adobes or something.

[borregokid]

I think something in the Tucson Mountain Estates area would be more attractive that further out at Three Points. Your friend would also be living with people of a similar age and background. There are some manufactured homes their that butt up to park land and the feeling is spacious. Plus a lot of view properties as it sits on a low rising hill.

[sorry, posting active listings is not allowed]

[bongo_x]

I would look toward Sahuarita, there’s a lot of that down there and it’s closer to shopping and such.