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Best City for Young Creatives

Tony Ray Baker
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Best City for Young Creatives
Tucson Voted Best City for Young Creatives
Tucson Voted Best City for Young Creatives

Tucson ranked #1 Best City for Young Creatives by CreativeLive.com.

Could the Southwest be the new Silicon Valley?

Organizations like Startup Tucson and the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship seem to think so.

With collaborative co-working spaces like Connect Co-Working, The RailYard, Spoke6, GangPlankHQ, and Co+Hoots plus entrepreneurial, art and tech meet-ups springing up across the sunny city, Tucson is wooing young entrepreneurs like crazy, and was even named one of the top tech hubs of last year.

Top it off with really cheap rent, one of the lowest housing markets in the country and a happening downtown, Arizona starts to looking like a delicious place for young creatives with an idea and a dream.

The affordable housing market really does set Tucson apart from big cities.

Young creatives thriving in these cities are obviously pulling in a chunky paycheck, but when you factor in how much of that money is going towards housing, the big city appeal starts to dwindle. Not to mention many of these rentals are tiny, and crowded and lack privacy.

Home ownership still is a great way to build wealth and invest in the future. The peace of mind that comes with having this kind of stability and not having to move every year or every few years is also incredible.

Another thing to consider when you’re looking for a place to live and deciding where to buy a house, is would the property and location also make a good rental? Because you never know, with your more settled and thriving life, maybe you’ll be in a place to buy another home and rent out the first, or possibly you’d want to travel and rent out your house to a long term tenant or even AirBnB. There are many options and benefits of home ownership.

With the way things are booming in Tucson, self-starters, smarty-pants and other hard workers could even pull in those fat, big city paychecks. Mix that with a low cost of living and you’re on track to build actual wealth.

Another cool thing about Tucson is we have one the best music scene’s in the country and a huge population of young people… around 30% which is the same as Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and other young people melting pots.

I’d love to talk to you more about this!

Download the PDF of CreativeLive’s article: What Are the Best Cities for Young Creatives

Catalina Foothills Unified School District is #1 in Arizona

jamesportis
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Catalina Foothills Unified School District is #1 in Arizona

We’ve got a lot of great things going on in Tucson, but I’m here to tell you about one specifically, the Catalina Foothills Unified School District. You might not be aware but birth rates in the USA are declining

Catalina Foothills High School Student Plaza
Catalina Foothills High School Student Plaza

And in our beloved home state of Arizona, that number has declined almost 22% in the last decade. While that figure may sound shocking to you, I’m here to tell you that it’s actually not a bad thing. It’s common knowledge that our teachers are burdened with disproportionate class sizes to what a single teacher can effectively handle. 

Where am I going with this? I’m so glad you asked. Kids need teachers, teachers need schools, schools have districts, and some are better than others. This is why we are so very happy to inform you that one of ours has been ranked the TOP school district in all of Arizona.

Drumroll, please! If you live in Tucson you may have already guessed but for those of you looking to move here with kids, pay attention. The Catalina Foothills Unified School District has been rated #1 in Arizona according to Newsweek!

Catalina Foothills School District
Catalina Foothills School District

Let’s look at some of the statistics.

What You Need To Know

  1. It’s located in Tucson, obviously the best city in Arizona by far. 
  2. CFUSD has a teacher to student ratio of 1:19, while not ideal it’s comparatively better than the competition. The next jump in other districts is 1 teacher to 23 or more students. Sometimes even 35 students are being wrangled by 1 teacher.
  3. Catalina also boasts a 98% graduation rate, that’s the highest in the state!
  4. According to Zip Recruiter, “As of July 2021 the average annual pay for a teacher in AZ is $26,553 a year.” For Catalina Unified they pay their teachers an average of $45,311 a year. That’s an extra $18,000 for our educators and we believe they deserve every penny and then some.

So, there you have it. If you live in Arizona and have children, you might want to consider relocating to Tucson. Parents should always want the best for their children, Catalina Foothills Unified School District is the best in Arizona, hands down.

Tucson is Ranked One of the Top U.S. Dog Friendly Cities

Tony Ray Baker
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Tucson is Ranked One of the Top U.S. Dog Friendly Cities
A Cute Picture of Baxter that we Overlayed on Top of a Flower Bed in our Garden, a Green Oasis in Tucson, One of the Top U.S. Cities for Man's Best Friend

We Love Tucson Dog Friendly Neighborhoods

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of owning a dog, you’d know that dogs have a powerful, if not magical, effect on humans. They decrease stress and blood pressure levels and can help people overcome feelings of loneliness and depression and so much more. Having a fido friend can drastically improve a person’s quality of life and I know this first hand.

The Huffington Post published an article about the analysis of data collected from a financial consulting company SmartAsset to rank the most wag-worthy cities across the map. The study considered both dog and human-friendly factors. A city’s dog accessibility as in the number of dog parks, dog-friendly shopping areas and dog-friendly restaurants was one and the other was based on the city’s quality of life, which took walk-ability, weather and housing costs into consideration (happy pets need happy owners).

petcationThe ranking is as follows:

  1. San Francisco
  2. Las Vegas
  3. Denver
  4. San Diego
  5. Albuquerque
  6. Sacramento
  7. Chicago
  8. Minneapolis
  9. Tucson
  10. New York City

I’d have to agree that Tucson has a lot of dog-friendly parks, beautiful Tucson dog-friendly walk and bike paths, lots of open properties with acreage for a dog to roam if that’s your style but also many of the homes backyards. There are dog-friendly bars and restaurants and even hiking trails. Tucson loves doggies.

In line with the other ranking, I can attest to that fact that the quality of life in Tucson is also high for humans. Tucson is one of the most affordable places to live, one of the most kid-friendly cities for children, and also a foodies paradise.

If you have any questions about Tucson, relocating, housing please don’t hesitate to call me. I’d be more than happy to speak with you to see if Tucson is right for you and find you your dream home.

Have a great day,
Tony Ray
(520) 631-TONY (8669)
Free relocation package and Tucson fun info

Download Huffington Post's 10 Most Dog-Friendly Cities
Download SmartAsset's Most Dog-Friendly Cities in America

Tucson Ranked in Top 10 Cities Best Positioned for Pandemic Recovery

Tony Ray Baker
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Tucson Ranked in Top 10 Cities Best Positioned for Pandemic Recovery

According to Forbes magazine, Tucson is one of the top 10 cities in the best position for a post pandemic recovery. Using data collected from Moody’s Analytics they predict the top 10 and the 10 worst cities. “Note that they are sorted alphabetically in order to avoid assigning false precision to our calculations,” Kamins tells Forbes Women.

Tucson is a Top City That Will Recover From Coronavirus
Tucson is a Top City That Will Recover From Coronavirus

Pandemic Recovery Ranking Method

Moodys examines the density of population and compares it against the number of jobs that require a higher degree. They also take into consideration the density of cases across different counties. Those 2 factors alone could indicate why Tucson makes it into the top 10. Because it’s a college town Tucson is overflowing with smart people and has an abundance of open spaces. 

Some of the other top contenders are Denver (CO), San Jose (CA), and Washington DC. Noticeably these places are also university towns and have beautiful natural resources. Surprisingly Austin, TX did not make this list. Austin is frequently set side by side to Tucson as another blue city in a red state.

Now that the gloating is over we will look at a few of the cities that did not make it. Some of the results may surprise you.

The Have-nots

What do Honolulu (HI), Los Angeles (CA), New York City (NY), and Tampa (FL) all have in common? Aside from being on the top 10 worst recovery cities list? High density, overcrowding tourist traps. Yup, the higher your tourism the more likely you’re in an area heavily afflicted with Coronavirus. They predict that there will be mass out-migration from these densely populous areas towards more sprawling towns. 

Covid 19 is going to loom large in the public consciousness for years to come. For the very young and impressionistic pandemic recovery may always haunt them, much like children of the Great Depression often stockpile non-perishables or hideaway cash money. 

We are certainly fortunate to be in a position where, not only are we poised to recover well, but it’s such a beautiful, and delicious, place to be till then. But, for the foreseeable future, we still have to be vigilant. We have to be willing to do our parts for the greater good. Yes, we are all sick of wearing masks, but for a better future, we must do better now.

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