Communities to look at around Tucson? (Oro Valley, Tanque Verde: real estate, insurance, houses)

[jfearnow]

My girlfriend and I are planning on moving to Tucson later on this summer. We are trying to find a decent neighborhood to move to. We have been looking at places in and around Bear Canyon and Tanque Verde or over by foothills mall? We are open to any suggestions and information..We will be visiting the area at the end of May to explore the area.

[mrsguido]

My family is planning on starting to move to Tuscon area starting this summer. We went driving aroound and north of Tuscon-Oro Valley, Marana. Looked beautiful. We are going to check into it more.Good luck.

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by jfearnow

My girlfriend and I are planning on moving to Tucson later on this summer. We are trying to find a decent neighborhood to move to. We have been looking at places in and around Bear Canyon and Tanque Verde or over by foothills mall? We are open to any suggestions and information..We will be visiting the area at the end of May to explore the area.

Both areas are nice enough.

[mdtoaz]

The best info you'll get is pretty much driving around and checking out the area. Lots of houses that looked great online, turned out to be dumps. My husband and I spent many an evening just driving around different areas and neighborhoods. Good luck to you both.

[sickofIL]

One thing you might want to take into consideration is the position that Marana is currenty in with FEMA. They still haven't made a decision (unless they have since I last looked) about a large amount of Marana possibly being in a floodplain now. If that ends up being the case the insurance could be as high as $4800/yr I have heard.

We have been thiniking about this area but it FEMA doesn't change how they list this area we won't be looking there. Adding this to a house payment is like the taxex we are trying to get away from here in the Chicago area.

[eyegothouse]

Do you know where you are going to be working out here or are you going to be looking for a job when you get here?
If you have friends or relatives out here, I suggest you have them show you places to go to, like restaurants, movie theatres, malls, grocery stores, where the hospitals are, and schools if you have children, and that way you will get a better idea of the surroundings and choose a neighborhood based on what you saw. It's kind the reverse of what people usually suggest, but if you think about it... most people that fall in love with a house get immediate tunnel vision and all they can think of is the house and what it will look like when you start decorating it and living in it. The problem with this is that you forget about your commute to work, how close is a convenient store when you need something in the middle of the night, what about medical care or simply wanting to go out dining or to the movies, and then you are stuck in a nice home and hate how far or inconvenient everything is outside your home.
Anyway - if you guys are going to buy when you get here or within a year, please remember this and hopefully you'll keep my info and try to reach me and I can drive you around and see where you like it best. I am a real estate consultant here in Tucson and Sahuarita and there are many beautiful communities, some that are coveniently located to everything, and some that just have pretty houses.
As others have posted, drive around as much as you can.