Just in time for our coming Earth Day celebration, there is a renewed interest in green homes in Tucson. Our city is tapping into this new enthusiasm for our environment by launching the Pima County Regional Residential Green Building Standards program. This is a brand new certification effort by the city dedicated to helping homeowners and professionals complete projects that are focused on sustainability for our desert environment. This certification program recently enacted by Tucson is voluntary, and is consolidated with the home building permit and inspection process. Homes are rated and awarded points for environmentally-responsible criteria in categories including: Location; Lot Design & Development; Resource Efficiency; Energy Efficiency; Water Efficiency; Indoor Environmental Quality; Operation, Maintenance & Owner Education. Around the country you’ve heard a lot of talk about the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and how it has doubled its LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) network across the United States. This will allow more local access to green home building expertise, since LEED-certified green homes complete comprehensive inspections to validate energy efficiency, water conservation and other environmental features. Although the Pima County program is not exactly the same thing as LEED Green Home Certification, this rating system was developed specifically to address the needs of Pima County and is available at no additional cost. Once the process is completed, a homeowner or professional can receive a certificate and will be eligible to obtain a building plaque commemorating the achievement. You can check out southwest green home building resources, and get additional environmental information about recycling or alternative fuels at Tucson’s upcoming Earth Day celebration, to be held Saturday, April 19 at Reid Park, beginning at 9am. Attend and enjoy exhibits, a parade, festival treats and music during this fun, family-friendly event. Learn how Tucson living can be green as well as fabulous!

Tucsonans and soon-to-be Tucsonans, rejoice! Tucson’s real estate market is not even close to being a candidate in America’s riskiest real estate markets, an article written and provided by Forbes Magazine. It never was a worry of mine that Tucson would ever be a part of this list, but with national headlines proclaiming doom for the whole United States, many people have the truth misconstrued.

The proof is in the pudding. How can a market (the Tucson market) that sells 700-800 homes a month be in any trouble? Yes, the US’s economy is hurt if we’re being general about that fact, but Tucson has been unique and different… Ever since the real estate boom until now. Other markets, on the other hand, have been stagnant. Sales are almost unheard of.

I am happy and VERY glad to share this news with you, but at the same time, I feel the pain for the people who live in America’s Riskiest Real Estate Markets.

It’s not too surprising to find the following cities on that list: Phoenix, AZ, Tampa & Miami, FL, Denver, CO, and Las Vegas, NV to name a few.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for these markets to jump back up and continue making progress in the near future…