There is just something about Tucson that makes it hard for people to stay away. For decades, visitors have turned their love of visiting the Old Pueblo into building new homes here, settling down and helping to make Tucson the booming and thriving mini-metropolis that it is today.
In their annual forecast of the hottest markets to invest in, the Realtor.com article Top Real Estate Markets for 2017: The West Leads the Way urges anyone who is looking to invest in a growing business, new home construction, or millennial real estate market in 2017 to pack on up and head west to Arizona. The article cites Tucson, Scottsdale, and Phoenix leading the way, but overall, Tucson has the most across-the-board traction for potential, out-shining the other two cities by a mile.
Where There’s Space …
Tucson has become a hub for commercial space centers. Already calling Tucson home is Raytheon Missile Systems, World View Enterprises, and Paragon Space Development Corporation, utilizing the Tucson community’s existing space-centric institutions and space professionals like the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Planetary Science Institute, and the University of Arizona’s plethora of space science programs, labs, professors, and recent graduates.
Soon to join the ranks of space endeavors will be Vector Space Systems, who are gearing to open their headquarters in Tucson, manufacturing rockets and satellite parts that will soon be in space.
Millennials Are Coming to Stay
The University of Arizona and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base have always had a tremendous impact on the Tucson community, and with it comes the millennial generation, all looking for places to call their own. This generation is far different from the last, determined to invest in their futures by putting down roots in thriving and empirically-cool up-and-coming cities. For them, Tucson more than fits the bill.
Once they come here for military service or a world-class education, more and more are choosing to stay and make Tucson their permanent home, and 2016 has been a banner year for Millennials in Tucson. Job growth, multi-million dollar restaurants, towering apartment buildings, and Downtown Tucson revitalization efforts.
Our flourishing Downtown revitalization and trolley services have been a major boon to the millennials who are steering clear of overcrowded cities and opting for smaller, more communal spaces. The University of Arizona is doubling-down on their investment in the development of the Downtown area for students, adding two new high-rise apartment buildings, one on Broadway and Park Avenue and another just up the block at the former Chase Bank property on Park Avenue and Speedway.
In fact, Curbed Magazine’s article High-Tech Millennial Lifestyle Inspires Micro Apartment Boom even notes that Tucson and Phoenix are “gaining traction in their quest to be the “Second Silicon Valley,” attracting former Bay Area businesses in droves.
Build It, and They Will Come
It should be no surprise that with Tucson’s popularity on the rise, home building and real estate have been on the rise too, ready and willing to accommodate the scores of newcomers who are discovering just how amazing Tucson is. With limited housing and new construction opportunities, it should be no surprise that Tucson’s home sales have grown 5.5% in 2016, upping prices 6/1% overall and continuing to grow.
Before the market hits a “too high to buy” mark, smart investors would be wise to snag land and build in one of the most highly-sought after cities around, a city that is still evolving into what will undoubtedly be the next urban utopia in the West.
