Marana, AZ

It's going to sneak up on you if you're not careful. The dates are February 23 to March 1st.

2009's Accenture World Match Play will be held at the brand new Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Marana, Arizona. Tickets are already on sale. Here's a link to get yours.

Tiger Woods won last year's match on a bum knee. He had surgery in June following his win of the US Open at Torrey Pines, and has been in rehab since then.

As the defending champion, will Woods make his return to competition here at Dove Mountain?

I'm betting he will.

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house: (520) 349-9090

• VA Loans: 100% purchase loans for active or honorably discharged veterans
• FHA Rehab loans for fixer uppers: up to $35,000 on top of the purchase price
• Kiddy Condo loans instead of shelling out big bucks for your student's housing
• Conforming conventional loans

This is but one of the neighborhoods at the base of the Tortolita Mountains in the NW area of Tucson - commonly referred to as Oro Valley, although this particular subdivision is actually in the town of Marana.

Stunning views, highly rated schools and convenient location are hallmarks of this area. If you are relocating to the Tucson area - please feel free to give me a call.

For all of your real estate needs: commercial,
residential, investment or land.

Growing up on my family's farm near Las Cruces, New Mexico, cotton was a major factor in our lives.  It put food on our table, paid the mortgage on the land, provided my first job, a place to play...you name it, cotton was part of it.  My first trip to DisneyWorld was to a cotton convention, even my first trip to New York City, first Broadway play and first 7-course meal had a tie to cotton!

On the way to show a home in Marana today, I took the frontage road next to I-10 and saw the cotton modules on the side of the fields, ready to be taken to the gin.  A little bit of nostalgia washed over me...a little sadness and more than a dose of resignation to the fact that I won't see much cotton in Arizona anymore.

Farms like this one are being developed.  Just north of this field is the Gladden Farms  subdivision...on the other side of which is another cotton field, then the new Marana Municipal Center.  There isn't much money to be made raising cotton in America.  The price of cotton has not kept up with the cost of producing it at a highly mechanized and efficient rate.  Overseas, the cost of production is much less because of a greatly cheaper labor pool and fewer regulations.

Like it or not, things change and life neccessitates adaptation.  When I was a kid, the cotton picker machines would dump into a box-like trailer to be taken for ginning.  We had lots of fun climbing into the trailer, digging forts and throwing handfuls of the soft, puffy stuff at each other...all in the name of tromping it down to fit more in the trailer!  Now modules like this have replaced those trailers, hydraulically compressed into dense, loadable packages for more efficiency.  I'll bet the kids still find some way to have a little fun around cotton fields...that's what being a kid is all about.

King Cotton is becoming King Casa.  Some people will be bitter, others will point fingers and try to stop all development in the name of preservation, and still more won't care.  There are all sides to it, each with their own merits.  Change is like the river...you can harness it, you can channel it, divert it, shape it, try to manage it, but you can't stop it.

I like to think that we are an intelligent people who value our past while improving upon it.  Some developers are integrating their developments around working agricultural concerns, preserving farm heritage as an enhancement to the quality of life.  Perhaps that in itself will be the wave of the future...

Enchanting Vistas at Tangerine Crossing in Marana, Arizona

On Wednesday I got a phone call from a person in Florida, asking me about availability of a specific floor plan in a particular neighborhood in the Northwest area of the Tucson Metro (Oro Valley/Marana).  The name of the subdivision rang a bell, but a faint one..."need to get specifics here," common sense told me.

Having not been up in that area with homes in mind for a few months, the idea of driving over to see what was going on with new construction in general seemed like a good idea to make best use of the time.

Turns out, the subdivision in question is built out...a lot or two are available for custom building, but the specific floor plan my customer was asking for is gone like ice cream in August (unless there's one on the resale market).  Since she had expressed a real feeling for the area, I decided to explore with open eyes:  the last time I had looked at the opportunities here, it was in the early afternoon in the middle of summer...definitely not the most optimum time of year (or day!) to get out of the air conditioned environs of my vehicle & really take a good look.

What awaited me was the chance to enjoy the splendor of a Tucson sunset, with the backdrops of the Tortolita and Catalina Mountains showing their majesty with the light changes of the setting sun.

As most of you know from following this blog, enjoying nature's beauty is something that is rooted deep into my core.  Without taking time to drink in the special qualities of my surroundings, my soul feels neglected and I start to get cranky without realizing it.

Perhaps it was the mood I was in because of the spectacular sunset this day, maybe it is because I had no expectations on this trip to the area, but I saw the development with new eyes on Wednesday.  Chatting with the site agent, Angie Wild, about the development was relaxed and easy.  Neither one of us was too concerned with the list of specifics about each home, nor did we talk upgrade packages or decorative schemes...this was a time to see what The Development was like.  What makes IT different from the next chunk of tract homes?

Learning that this subdivision is surrounded by a boundary zone of natural vegetation 1000 feet wide, with state land its neighbor for a good portion of the perimeter notched itself into my brain - that's something you don't find all the time. 

Tile, granite, travertine...you can have those things anywhere, anytime...but a view and some open space are gifts of location.  Parks & playgrounds are standard fare, but to take pictures of the kids being kids with a stunning backdrop behind is special.

I don't know if I will ever represent someone who wants to buy a home in Tangerine Crossing, but hope so someday...the area makes me feel good, and being able to have a business reason to spend some more time up there is fine by me!

To view these in a larger format and other photos taken at Tangerine Crossing by the author, click HERE Downloading & printing is permissible for personal use.