It’s springtime and attentions are turning to home buying….and to Tucson! The proof is in the Wall Street Journal as well as in the numbers. While our neighbors further north continue to have problems with price cuts and risk, the Tucson scene has many bright lights. Let’s focus on just a few of them:

• In the Wall Street Journal’s regular “Your Money Matters” feature, Tucson was among several cities highlighted. Yesterday’s Journal featured a look at homes around the country listed at $400,000, and Tucson made the cut.
• Despite a market that is still tough in many areas, March showed improvement over February for 2008 in several areas. Based on information from the Tucson Multiple Listing Services, Inc. for the recent one-month period, March showed strong home sales, with a significant increase over February. And sales will probably stay strong in April, too!
• Just in time for summer, US Airways announced that it will ramp up its summer schedule with a new transcontinental route beginning on June 3, from its Charlotte hub to Tucson, Ariz. Our Tucson International Airport, which celebrates its 60^th year in 2008, continues to set records, with passenger traffic at Tucson International Airport exceeding projections for 2007.
• Did you know Tucson has tasty tap water? An April 14 article in Forbes about “best cities for clean drinking water,” mentions Tucson as a city with “lowest amount of bacteria in its drinking water…”
• And that leads us to a timely feature in today’s Arizona Daily Star. As you know, the first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. And today, across the country, cities and individuals are honoring this very special event, intended as way to focus public support for environmental issues. The Star gives us several examples of how Tucson is excelling in environmental conservation: It reports on how solar energy purchases are rising. It also notes how Tucson and more than 400 other cities have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within city limits to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Tucsonans are taking action. We all have so many reasons to be proud of our city. Stay tuned to TREDaily.com to learn more!