March 20th, 2010 by Michael Oliver

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California’s real estate market is doing a lot better over the past year. California’s median home price is up 11.2% over the last year, and what many people don’t realize (even experienced Realtors here in Tucson) is that the Tucson real estate market gets a lot of buyer demand from California residents who migrate to Tucson. These Californians move from Los Angeles, San Diego, San Fransisco, and essentially every other part of the state to Tucson on a yearly basis. Why? Well the reason is simple the vast majority want to relocate from the hustle and crowding of California’s larger metro areas to another place such as Tucson where they can cash out of their modest but very expensive homes, and buy a much better larger home in Tucson for less. It basically comes down to a slower pace of life in Tucson combined with a much lower cost of living.

You maybe asking does the California real estate market really have an impact on Tucson’s? The answer is a simple yes; when the California real estate market is doing well those sellers can more easily sell and for higher prices allow them to relocate to Arizona. During the boom years Arizona specifically Tucson and Phoenix saw huge droves of people moving here from California all selling homes they had substantial equity in and this allowed them to move up in quality of life here in Arizona. During the boom as many as 1 out of 6-7 homes I sold was to a Californian showing the high ratio of people moving from Tucson from California.

During the real estate depression of 2006-2009 the amount of calls and clients I handled from California was almost non-existent, as many could not sell their homes for an amount that left them enough equity to make the relocation worth it. In the past week I’ve taken 3 calls from California residents ready to move to Tucson. When you look at the numbers the California market is up anywhere from 10%-20% in price depending upon the area. This will lead to additional buyers showing up in Tucson looking to buy here. This changing of the California market will take time to spill into Tucson’s I predict upwards of a year as many Californians are just awakening to the idea there home maybe worth more then what they thought and cashing out now is an option again where-as before it simply wasn’t. I think the flux of out of state buyers (most from the Los Angeles area) will start to show by the end of the summer here in Tucson which will only help strengthen the Tucson market as motivated cash rich Californians are always good for the local market.

Tucson Real Estate