Seeming to defy the slow-down in the rest of the market, the luxury home market in the Tucson Foothills is doing better than ever, it's doing even better than last year, with more homes selling at $1,000,000 and UP than ever before.
And this is a market that has emerged in just the last few years.
In the year 2000, 24 homes sold for $1,000,000 or more, then 25 sold in 2001, 30 in 2002, and just 27 in 2003. Then sales started to take off, with 60 homes selling at $1,000,000+ in 2004, and jumping to 97 in 2005.
So far this year 113 homes have sold for $1,000,000+ in the Tucson Foothills. And there are 16 more $1,000,000+ homes currently under contract and scheduled to close escrow in the next 30 days or so.
Some of this growth is the result of appreciation. Tucson homes that sold for $800,000 or $900,000 a few years ago are now going for $1.2, or more.
But a lot of it is the result of real growth in the luxury home market here in the Tucson Foothills- more luxury homes for sale, and more demand from buyers for those homes.
In 2000 Pima Canyon opened for business. Pima Canyon is a luxury home community that was developed on the very last large parcel of land in the Tucson Foothills. It's a gated community adjacent to the Coronado National Forest, with about 300 homesites on 1 acre or slightly larger lots. Homes in Pima Canyon now start at about $1.3 and go up to $4,000,000 or more. So when Pima Canyon is built-out- I'm guessing that it's about 2/3 built now- it will have added 300 homes to the Foothills, and all of them valued at $1,000,000++.
At the other end of the spectrum is Skyline Country Club Estates, the first luxury golf community in the Foothills, built in the 60's and 70's.
By late 2003 the country was beginning to recover from 9/11, the stock market was on the mend, and Tucson had caught the attention of luxury home buyers. But buildable land in the Foothills had become very scarce.
Enter Skyline Country Club. It began to go thru a re-birth, a renaissance.
Skyline CC has some of the best home-sites in the Foothills, they're high up in the Foothills with magnificent mountain and city views, and all of it in a gated-golf course community.
Homes that were very old and dated were either knocked down and re-built or extensively renovated, and then listed for sale at big $1,000,000++ prices.
Also older estates with 8 or 10 acres of land are being sold off, and then broken up into multiple parcels, with 7 or 8 $1,000,000+ homes now occupying that land.
This same scenario has been repeated throughout the Tucson Foothills, as builders, investors and homeowners look to meet the growing demand for luxury homes in an area with very little buildable land available.
And while it's true that these homes are selling better than ever, it's also true that the builders, investors and other sellers of $1,000,000+ homes have gotten a little overzealous and ahead of the market, because currently there are 117 $1,000,000+ homes for sale in the Foothills.
