down in monthly and yearly comparisons.

The median price – the point at which half of homes sold for more and half for less – dropped to $149,450, down 9.4 percent from June 2009. The median sales price for May 2010 was $151,000, the MLS reported. The average sale price also dropped about 9.4 percent from June 2009 to $189,231 last month.

The number of homes sold this June was down from the previous month, as expected with homebuyers’ tax credits expiring.

Meanwhile, inventory increased and more homes were put up for sale than during the previous month. There were 1,505 new listings in June, compared with 1,463 in May. The total of active listings increased to 6,852 in June, up from 6,742 in May.

Real Estate Franchises: Most Recognizable Brands for 2009

 390,000 Home Owners Select the Top 10

The Top 10 real estate franchises, most recognized by the real estate industry as quality national brands are:

1.     Keller Williams Realty

2.     Coldwell Banker Real Estate

3.     RE/MAX International

4.     Century 21 Real Estate

5.     Prudential Real Estate

6.     Sotheby’s International Realty

7.     EXIT Realty

8.     ERA Real Estate

9.     Weichert Real Estate Affiliates

10.   Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate

   Keller Williams Realty’s  #1 national ranking  is due in no small part due to the strong online and social media presence of their agents and the fact that during 2009 KW surpassed RE/MAX in agent count nation wide. In 2010, Keller Williams Tucson Territory merged with Realty Executives Southern Arizona to become Keller Williams Southern Arizona. In less than 120 days the agent count of Keller Williams agents in the southern Arizona marketplace multiplied ten-fold!

The IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center in Tucson will be open next Saturday to answer taxpayers’ questions and help with tax-filing issues.

“During the expanded Saturday hours, taxpayers will be able to address economic hardship issues, make payment arrangements or get help claiming any of the special tax breaks in last year’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including the Homebuyer Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Credit, the Making Work Pay Credit and the Expanded Earned Income Tax Credit,” says an IRS news release.

IF YOU GO

• What: Tucson IRS office open for special Saturday service day.

• When: Saturday, March 27, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Where: 300 W. Congress St.

• For those interested, The Dan Adler Team utilizes the services of Lt. Col. (R) Weston Jones CPA for our accounting needs. He can be reached at 722-6617.

Keller Williams® Realty Inc. announced today the launch of Keller Williams Southern Arizona. The new operation, formerly with Realty Executives®, includes seven offices, with more than 375 top-producing real estate agents and staff.

“We felt it was our responsibility to be the stewards of our agents’ careers and, based on our research and what we have seen, it is obvious that Keller Williams Realty is the right choice for a positive future,” said Anthony Azar, operating principal of Keller Williams Southern  Arizona. “We absolutely have the best agents in the city, and that is statistically supported by their rankings and their designations. We are thrilled to be a part of a company that is as serious about growth and success as we are.”

Sue Cartun, operations manager of the new organization, added, “KW’s philosophy of putting agents and ownership on the same side of the table was an incredibly important part of our decision to join Keller Williams Realty.”

This comes on the heels of a year of positive growth for Keller Williams Realty throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company outpaced the downward trend in the real estate market and grew in every category – opening 30 new franchises, ending the year with a 16 percent year-over-year increase in the number of contracts closed per agent, more than 76,879 associates across North America (up three percent). In addition, the company gave back more than $32.2 million in profit share to its agents.

“We make it our business to get in business with the best – and Anthony and his associates are proven leaders in the Southern Arizona marketplace,” said Mark Willis, CEO of Keller Williams Realty. “It’s our honor to welcome them to the Keller Williams family.”

In 2009, in addition to becoming  the 3^rd largest real estate company in the U.S., surpassing Re/Max®, Keller Williams Realty received the highest overall satisfaction ratings from home buyers among the largest full-service real estate firms from J.D. Power and Associates for the second year in a row, and  was ranked as the No. 1 real estate franchise on the 31^st Annual Franchise 500 list by Entrepreneur magazine.

“I am so thrilled to be a part of the Keller Williams family,” said Nancy Colvin, team leader for the new Kolb La Playa office. “Joining forces with Keller Williams Realty is a huge benefit for our agents and was the best decision for our team as a whole.”

“We are confident that with this change, Tucson-area residents will think of us when they think of real estate,” added David Jones, senior team leader in the new operation’s Joesler Village location. ”We’re proud to be one of the leading real estate companies in the state.”

Tucson was listed in the March Sunset magazine as one of the West’s “20 Towns of the Future” for its “fresh, innovative and environmentally sound buildings.”

That might surprise folks who have driven past miles of aging ranch homes in the city’s center or explored the cookie-cutter sameness of subdivisions on its fringe.

Sunset focused on urban-infill pockets of creativity amid our boomtown sprawl, specifically citing architects Rob Paulus and the husband and wife team of Luis Ibarra and Teresa Rosano as part of a “new guard of architects and designers.”

Those two firms have garnered local and regional design awards for their work in the past decade.

Paulus is known for his transformation of an 80-year-old icehouse into the sleek, modern Ice House Lofts and for the visual surprise of places such as Barrio Metalico.

Ibarra Rosano Design Architects uses a mix of modern and traditional materials to create open, airy spaces on tight lots.

Teresa Rosano said urban high style can be a hard sell in Tucson, which “still sees itself as a town.”

“There are a handful of people doing exciting stuff,” she said.

“I would definitely call Tucson a hub for fresh and innovative thinking about sustainable development,” said Don Chatfield, the deputy director of operations for the Sonoran Institute, which encourages infill and environmental sensitivity with its biennial Building From the Best awards.

“We have a way to go to put that into practice as a norm,” he said.

Part of the gap between thought and action, Paulus said, is a reluctance by some architects to take on their own building and financing. “If you can design and build, that’s a complete commitment to your craft,” he said. “I wish there were more design-savvy people doing it.”

Anne-Marie Russell, executive director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, said interest in architecture, specifically modernist architecture, is strong and growing, with 20 to 30 “top-tier architects” working in the form.

“If you want an architecture-designed home, Tucson is probably the most affordable place to do it,” she said. To see the best homes of this style contact someone from the Dan Adler Team (520-275-2132 or Dan@TheDanAdlerTeam.com) at Keller Williams Southern Arizona.

Russell said contemporary architecture expresses concepts from the region’s earliest forms – the pit house, the pueblo, the adobe.

“They had to pay attention to light, to wind, to sun. All of these buildings were incredibly smart – cooling towers and thermal mass and sleeping porches.”

Rosano, whose first building experience was helping her father make mud-adobe blocks for the family’s Marana home, said the key is to allow the natural setting to dictate building concepts.

Our setting, she said, “requires a different way of thinking and a real understanding of place.”

Paulus said Tucson’s mild winters and “crazy sun” in summer offer “a clear diagram to design within.”

Laura Shaw, senior vice president of Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc., said any positive listing in a magazine such as Sunset is good news to her. “It’s especially good to be recognized for a kind of creative uniqueness,” she said.

“I always think about these rankings in terms of young professionals. A lot of young people are looking for unique, creative places to start families and careers.”

NOTE: For directions to the Fair, click here! There are two Street Fairs per year, one in spring and one in winter. The next Street Fair is March 19, 20, 21, 2010. Hours are 10 am to 6 pm each day. The Street Fair takes place between Ninth Street and University Blvd. along Fourth Avenue. Click here for a map Free to the public, the Fourth Avenue Street Fair brings together 400+ arts and crafts booths, 35+ food vendors, 2 stages, street musicians, food, jugglers, street performers, the Free SPIKE kids hands-on-art Pavilion, face painting, balloons, and tons of other fun activities, then packs them into three days of celebration.

Parking:

Parking is easy. All metered Street Parking Downtown is FREE on Saturday and Sunday. We offer a FREE SHUTTLE to and from Downtown at the Pennington Street parking Garage (Click here for directions) all three days of the Fair. Click here for Parking Shuttle Map You can also park at one of the many U of A parking garages and a enjoy a ride on the Old Pueblo Trolley from Main Gate Square right to the Fair Click here for map of Trolley route. Neighborhood Parking Permits in the area from Speedway South to 10th Street and Stone Avenue East to Euclid Avenue are not enforced during the three days of the Fair. Click here for a map of the Street Fair boundries. We ask you to Park Wise and Park Smart while attending the Fair. The City of Tucson Parking Enforcement Officers will be on the lookout for safety and other parking violations. Do not park in Red Zones (painted curbs), within 5′ feet of a driveways and in marked Fire Lanes. Ride your bicycle to the Fair and park it at our FREE BICYCLE PARKING VALET area.  Click here for Valet Bike Parking Map Sponsored by the City of Tucson Bicycle & Pedestrian Program and El Grupo Youth Cycling.

History:

The Fourth Avenue Street Fair began in 1970 when Fourth Avenue merchants put tables in front of their stores to attract customers before the holidays. From that beginning it has developed into one of the premier street fairs in the nation, drawing crowds of 200,000 to 350,000 and ranking as one of the top visual arts fairs in the country.

There is something for everyone at the Street Fair:

Come for the shopping: 400+ artists booths featuring arts and crafts that cover the spectrum from fine art to country crafts. Glass, clay, wood, clothing, metal, jewelry, pre-packaged food, all hand made and offered for sale by their creators. Come for the food: 35+ food vendors selling an eclectic mix of good things to eat. Greek, Mexican, Thai, BBQ, fry bread, funnel cakes, chicken, and more. Come for the music: Two complete stages featuring only original music and local community performances. Three days of entertainment offering something for everyone! Come for the entertainment: Kids can express their creative talents at our new Hands-on-Kids Art Pavilion, sponsored by SPIKE Beverages and the Tucson Children’s Museum. How about flight simulators; climbing rocks; face painting; chair massages; everything and anything you can imagine! The two annual Street Fairs are Tucson’s biggest events, and they couldn’t happen without our sponsors! Click here for future Street Fair

At the peak of the housing market, bulldozers scraped swaths of the desert surrounding Tucson in anticipation of future growth.

Then job losses and dwindling paychecks forced people out of homes rather than into them. The housing market tanked, and developers left behind bladed tracts or partially built subdivisions.

But the dirt is flying again in some locations, and new houses are starting to pop up. The Dan Adler Team has the list and easy to use map to navigate these homes. Better yet, Associate Broker/Owner Dan Adler will shuttle you around to these different locations to view the homes and ensure you get the best possible deal. “When home buyers visit a subdivision without a real estate professional they hurt themselves financially” Adler said. “When a home buyer goes to a subdivision with a real estate professional from my team, they get the benefit of not only a powerful negotiator, but also the benefit of our team having sold many of the homes already existing in these subdivisions. Therefore, we already know how good a deal our clients should get and we expect to get as good or better deal this time” he exclaimed.

In Corona de Tucson, about 20 miles southeast of Tucson, KB Homes is building homes in the Sycamore Vista development near South Houghton and East Sahuarita roads.

On the northwest side, national builders Lennar and D.R. Horton are putting up homes in Willow Ridge, on West Cortaro Farms Road east of Interstate 10. Meritage Homes has kick-started construction of homes in Sky Ranch, near West Tangerine Road.

“We have seen an uptick in activity recently, which we see as a very positive sign,” said David Godlewski, a spokesman for the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association.

Land prices drop

In 2005, at the peak of the local housing market, builders pulled 12,475 residential permits for Pima County. By 2009 the number had plummeted to 2,077.

Investors swept in, buying lots at bargain prices- often with plans to hold onto them until land values resurged.

That hasn’t happened; land prices are the lowest they’ve been in five years, said Will White of the Land Advisors Organization, a consulting company that brokers land deals for home builders and commercial clients.

And deals like that are too good for home builders to resist.

Industry experts still predict a sluggish recovery as builders move cautiously back into the market. But they are coming back – at least at some locations.

“As the confidence built back up, the home builders entering was a real shot to the market,” White said.

Deals on troubled properties – those that had slid into default – are closing now, eliminating them from the market, White said. He brokered a $5.8 million deal at the end of 2009; D.R. Horton purchased the remaining assets of Canoa Homes, which had shut down its operations. The national builder bought 203 lots – all but 72 of them finished and ready for building – in areas surrounding Tucson.

gradual recovery

White, who predicts about 2,700 residential permits will be issued in 2010, stressed that any recovery would be gradual. When Tucson’s economy was healthy, he said, Pima County was issuing about 6,000 residential permits each year.

That means home building this year will be less than half of what it was as much as eight years ago.

Local housing consultant John L. Strobeck, who tracks residential permits, said January 2010 saw 201 new-home permits, nearly twice the number pulled in January 2009. Builder Richmond American pulled the most permits with 43, Strobeck’s report released in February said, followed by KB Home at 34 and D.R. Horton at 33.

Strobeck’s full report for February hasn’t been released, but he said the number of residential permits pulled was again more than 200.

While down from years past, “it’s starting off quite healthy,” Strobeck said.

Again, Richmond American and D.R. Horton pulled the most permits, Strobeck said, with most of those for homes at the Tucson area’s southern reaches, along Valencia Road and in Rancho Sahuarita.

Tax credits expiring

Some recent construction might be linked to home builders hoping to attract buyers wanting to take advantage of federal tax credits that expire April 30, said Godlewski of the home builders association.

First-time home buyers are eligible for an $8,000 credit. Repeat home buyers can get up to $6,500.

But when it comes to going from dirt to homes, financing remains a challenge, Godlewski said. While construction has begun at a number of places that languished during the recession, there hasn’t been a significant increase in construction jobs.

While Godlewski had some optimism about the recent uptick, he was cautious about calling it a turnaround.

“When you get into the hot months of summer,” Godlewski said, “you see activity slow down.”

Home builders are also having to compete with a resale market that’s been depressed by increasing foreclosures.

“New-home sales have got extremely competitive because the resale market has deteriorated so much,” said Jeff Grobstein, the division president of Meritage Home’s Tucson division.

Home builders are offering energy-efficient homes, new floor plans and emphasizing that new homes are cheaper than they used to be.

“Prices have come down over the last year, 15 to 30 percent,” Grobstein said. Meritage Homes recently purchased lots at Sky Ranch and has started opening models there, Grobstein said. The builder was able to take advantage of dropping land values and buy the property after previous developments had fallen through, Grobstein said.

In Rancho Sahuarita, the master-planned community south of Tucson, new homes were selling at a rate of about one a day last year, said developer Bob Sharpe. That’s down from a peak of 800 new homes sold in one year, Sharpe said.

But there are signs of optimism, Sharpe said. Existing-home sales were up about 30 percent from 2008 to 2009, though prices had dropped about 10 percent.

To spur new-home sales, Mark Rodocker, KB Homes executive vice president for Arizona, said his company surveyed customers to develop new floor plans. Rodocker said his company purchased lots at the Sycamore Vista development in October, started construction and now has models open.

Biosphere 2, that grand experiment with a checkered history, is being readied for new research conducted by the University of Arizona. Tuesday evening, Dr. Travis Huxman discussed plans for the facility with a group of about 30 people at the Cushing Street Bar.

Huxman, who has a doctorate in biological sciences, and is an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the U of A, is the new director of the Biosphere 2 research program.

For those who may be unfamiliar with Biosphere 2, here is some background. The concept was to construct a self-contained biosphere to investigate what would be needed to colonize other planets, such as Mars. The main structure, built near the town of Oracle, AZ, is a 3.15 acre greenhouse which was to be a self-sustaining ecosystem containing several plant biomes and an “ocean” to grow fish. The facility was built with $150 million in private funds in the late 1980s.

In September of 1991, a group of “biospherians” (four men and four women) entered the greenhouse for a planned two-year stay. It was intended that they depend only on what was inside the enclosure. As noted in a Wikipedia article: “All seven ecosystems of Earth exist within the confines of Biosphere II. They are a rainforest, a desert, a savanah, a marsh, a farmland (in an area called the Intensive Agriculture Biome), and a ‘human habitat’.” [I guess the ocean makes seven.] “Thus, it contains soil, air, water, animals, and plants. About 4,000 plants and animals were introduced to Biosphere II, and the ocean contained 900,000 gallons of water. It was hoped that these provisions would give the ecosystems enough material to be self-sustaining.”

As with many experiments, things didn’t go as planned. One of the main problems was that organic-rich soil consumed too much oxygen. The original oxygen content of 20.9% dropped to 14.5% after 18 months. That’s the equivalent of an altitude of 13,400 feet, and the biospherians suffered from high-altitude effects. Because they were in a greenhouse, the daily fluctuation of carbon dioxide was about 600ppm (current atmospheric concentration is about 390 ppm). During the day, with strong sunlight, plants revved up photosynthesis and used up carbon dioxide, but respired it back at night. There was also a seasonal variation in carbon dioxide, and wintertime levels reached about 4,000 ppm.

This first phase ended in September, 1993 as planned. After a 6-month transition, another group of seven people entered the greenhouse, but injuries and social problems caused abandonment of the project in 1994.

Columbia University took over in 1995 and operated the facility until 2003. Columbia “broke the seal” and formed a flow-through system to test effects of carbon dioxide among other things.

Through all of this, the facility was open for tours and derived much of its operating revenue from visitors. By 2006 the property was zoned for urban development and in 2007 sold to a developer who had planned houses and a resort hotel. However, the University of Arizona took over management responsibilities in June, 2007. And that brings us back to Huxman.

Huxman said that U of A research will “focus on environmental challenges of the day.” And by that he meant they would study initially, at least, the relationship between carbon, water, and energy, essentially photosynthesis, and how it can be applied to current issues.

Huxman mentioned solar power and the smart grid system since apparently Biosphere 2 gets some of its electricity from solar collectors. He said that with a smart grid system, the power company can turn off an individual’s solar system, which might generate power to the common grid in order to protect workers doing repairs on the lines. Biosphere 2 will not be a participant in the smart grid system so as to prevent such power outages. This will allow researchers to better control variables and also test software that manages smart grids.

Huxman says that under U of A management, Biosphere 2 will be better committed to a relationship between science and society, and that even now visitors can watch graduate students conducting experiments.

One of the planned projects is to build a model of a watershed to study the dynamics of how water gets to plants and how soil structures evolve. He wants to know how water gets into the aquifers. (A geologist could tell him that most aquifer recharge occurs at the mountain front.) After the “naive” model is working, they will introduce plants to see how that changes the soil structure. Once they learn from the model, they plan to try it outside in the real world.

They will also study ways to stabilize mine tailings.

Who is paying for all this? According to Huxman, major funding is coming from the facility owners and foundations. Much of the operating budget will come from visitor admissions; a minor part comes from the University and from corporations.

Will they be successful? Only time will tell. You can visit Biosphere 2. You can get information from www.B2science.org , email to info@B2science.org or call 520-838-6200. Currently admission price is $20 for adults. Lower prices are available for seniors and children.

Environmental Development Group (EDG) and EDG Fuels, a member of Tucson Clean Cities Coalition will open a Biodiesel Manufacturing & Refining Facility using used cooking oil as feedstock.

Tucson, Arizona– On March 13, 2010, EDG Fuels, a member of Tucson Clean Cities Coalition will open a Biodiesel Manufacturing & Refining Facility in Tucson, Arizona using used cooking oil as feedstock.  “This exciting event is due to the diligent efforts of our EDG employees and the Tucson community who have worked to make this ‘idea’ into a reality”, says Vice President, Stacey Sires.

The Biodiesel Facility will create approximately 19 “Green Jobs” for the Tucson market.  Within the first year, the Biodiesel Facility will be fully automated and will be operating 24-hours, 7 days a week.  EDG Fuels collects used cooking oil from Tucson-area businesses through their Enjoy Dining Greenprogram as well as collecting used cooking oil from other businesses around the country.  EDG Fuels is anticipating production to be approximately 3 million gallons of biodiesel fuel the first year, with a potential of expanding production up to 6 million gallons per year.

Enjoy Dining Green, a coalition of concerned and environmentally-conscious people and restaurants united to practice environmentally sustainable recycling in the form of used cooking oil to biodiesel processing.  Enjoy Dining Green offers free collection containers, free collection service, and recognition as a Green Contributor on the Enjoy Dining Green website.  Enjoy Dining Green members also qualify for discounts on combined services such as Grease Interceptor Maintenance, Facilities Maintenance and Plumbing, if you are interested in becoming a member of Enjoy Dining Green or would like more information, please contact Vivian Sampson at 520.790.3341 or visit our website at www.enjoydininggreen.com.

EDG Fuels and Enjoy Dining Green is part of the EDG network which also includes Environmental Development Group (EDG).  For over a decade, EDG has been an innovative company with an environmentally committed staff.  For more information about EDG, please visit our website at www.edgroup.us.