Moving to Tucson
 

My family and I are moving to Tuscon. Is anyone familiar with the Tucson area? I've never been there before. My wife and I are looking for a place for our family of four to live. Can anyone recommend good neighborhoods? By good neighborhood I mean one with houses, sidewalks, and a sense of community. I don't want to move from where we are now (generic suburbia) to the same house in Tucson (generic suburbia). Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I dont know much about Tucson its self, I'll be living in Gilbert, AZ in just a few weeks. But I've spent a good amount of time in the Arizona area its self.

The Saguaro National Park is beautiful.

And a small drive north-west is the Casa Grande which is a very cool historical spot.

Sorry thats about all I can offer to add for Tucson :(

Enjoy the stay though!

Oro Valley's very nice. I have a friend who used to work down there as some sort of tech executive and he loved the area. I'll admit to enjoying my last visit, which was back in late 2005, I believe.

And Oro apparently doesn't levy a local property tax. Residential land is assessed at 10% of "fair market" value.

Is it just me or shouldn't Tucson be spelled Tuscon?

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll look into Oro Valley. My wife really wants to live near downtown.

I have never lived in Tucson, but my parents retired there and two of my sisters moved there. Of course I have spent a lot of time there.

My parents retired to Oro valley, which is suburbia. One of my sisters lived on the other side of Tucson, it was suburbia. She then moved again (I cant think of the name, but north of Oro Valley). It was more rural, now it is suburbia. My other sister retired to Green Valley. It was just old peopleish.

Once I went with a couple of m sisters to the Downtown University District. It was the closet thing I ever saw to a downtown in Arizona.

Where are you moving from?

I hate to be the cynic, but make sure you have full coverage on your cars, or a good car alarm. Also, make sure you talk to your kids about meth before they hit high school. And keep tabs on them.

Oro is in NW Tucson, not anywhere near something that could be called a down town. You should google maps your future commute, as I assume you have a job lined up, and the streets are bad and under construction.

The joke on our local state car forum is that Tucson sucks. I know quite a few people who have moved up to Phoenix, and none that have moved down.

That said, I'm sure that somewhere in a city of a million, there is a community that will meet your standards. Good luck!

Thanks for the sage advice. I'll be sure to keep that in mind with my one year old and my five year old.

You're looking to avoid "suburbia", but you are moving to Tucson, which is mainly suburbs. Are you looking to live in a large apartment down town? Or maybe in the hills?

Hey sapiens,

I live in Tucson now and have been for the past few years, but I didn't grow up here so I don't really feel qualified to speak as a full-fledged local. I'll help out as best I can, though.

Could you elaborate on this a bit more? To me, "houses, sidewalks, and a sense of community" is the definition of generic suburbia. Granted, I grew up in generic suburbia, so that's what I'm used to. :)

I can issue a blanket recommendation of the Foothills, Oro Valley / NW side of town, and some neighborhoods around the University. Avoid South Tucson in general, and there are pockets NW/NE of the University that are best avoided as well.

If you're planning on being here for a while, now's a great time to buy a house. The market has been down and prices have been falling for the past 2 years, so you can find a lot of great deals on houses.

Tucson is certainly an interesting town. It's big enough to be noticed and have some of the "modern" things found in any other big city, and it's small enough to avoid some of the usual congestion, though that's been hit-or-miss lately, as well. There is a fair amount of crime here, unfortunately. Mostly drug and border-related (car theft, break-ins, etc). I've been fortunate enough to not have to directly deal with it, though PM me and I'll tell you a great story about my house being a victim of a DUI.

The local real-estate search site here is www.tarmls.com . Use zillow.com as well.

Good luck!

I grew up in the suburbs as well. I don't mind suburbia. I'm just not a big fan of neighborhoods where I know everyone else's floorplans. (Every fixture in the house is identical, everyone has the same carpet -->Every house is identical or nearly identical). If that's what there is, then that's what there is.

Thanks for the advice.

Ah, ok. As a rule of thumb, then, it sounds like you should just avoid some of the more newer neighborhoods that are built by big home building companies (e.g. KB Home). It should be pretty obvious where those neighborhoods are. Typically they're in the outer fringes of town -- most of the houses in Midtown and Tucson proper are older and have a bit more character.

Thanks. I also appreciate the advice that people have given regarding where I might want to avoid.

Some of our home search is limited by access to good schools. Tucson has an arrangement in which students can choose the school that they wish to attend even if they live outside the neighborhood. Unfortunately, we will be moving very near the beginning of the school year. All of the available spots in all of the highly rated public schools are taken. So, we need to move into a neighborhood with a good school. Then, they have to take us regardless of whether or not they are "full".

I live in Phoenix and admittedly have a bias against Tucson. My mother in law lives there are we go back and forth for regular visits.

The highway (yes there is only one) is a complete mess right now. They are adding a lane or two over a stretch of several miles. Rather than phase the work somehow they decided to close every exit in the expansion area for the next two years. Brilliant.

The surface streets aren't much better. They are really congested, even during weekends.

I have worked in the Tucson area over the years once staying 6 months in a resort hotel in the Oro valley. One thing to be careful of is the washes during the summer monsoons. The only time I ever saw it rain harder was in New Orleans.

The water in the desert runs rapidly like off a table top and most years a few people underestimate the danger in these dried up little ditches. We were trapped for 3 days once when all the roads to the resort were washed out and 3 or 4 people lost their lives when caught in the flash floods.

Thats true for just about any part of southern AZ.

Back earlier this year a nice chunk of 87 got washed completely away from a rain flood. It was a beautiful sight to see. But also sucked from having to detour around it.

Monsoon storms are the best.

Well, the school district with the best reputation in Tucson is Catalina Foothills, I believe. There are certain schools within each district (Amphitheater, Tucson Unified, etc) that are pretty decent, as well. I don't have any kids so I don't pay attention to most of it, though. Here's a quick link with some sort of school rating system I found though in case you haven't found this yourself already:

http://azstarnet.com/special/2007AZLearns

Heh, and it seems many locals here have a bias against Phoenix. :) I'm pretty much ambivalent.

Hmm... in my experience, I've only encountered congestion on weekends near the malls and commercial areas, and even then it's not terrible. I don't think the traffic is that bad compared to other cities around the country.

Word.

Looks like monsoon season is starting to ramp up and is just around the corner. I am giddy with excitement.

Thanks for the info!

I have not lived in Tucson since 1978.
I do not know if they have graduated beyond swamp-coolers and
chain-link fences.

The Catalina mountains are gorgeous..if you are into hiking check out
Sabino Canyon.

If you hang your laundry out to dry on a 110 degree day...
it will be dry in 5 minutes....

oh yeah....Keep towels or blankets handy in the car;
otherwise you cannot sit on the seats or touch the steering wheel.

Good luck on your new adventure!