Seeking Advice on Where to Live in Tucson Area.

I think the two best school districts are Vail and Sahuarita. Rancho Sahuarita has TONS of stuff for kids (and parents too). And there are a lot of new homes in both of those areas.

Sahuarita is a community just south of Tucson and north of Green Valley. They have a master-planned community called Rancho Sahuarita with a lake and parks, a library and other amenities, with public and charter schools nearby. I don't live in that community but a few miles down the road on more rural property and take my son into Sahuarita to the charter school called Great Expectations Academy - it is tuition-free but offers private school attention. They have very small classes and are not religiously dominated. The band program is fantastic if you want your kids to play an instrument - they have regular lessons and practice from 4th grade up. Depending on where you intend to work it is freeway close to most everywhere on the west side of the valley. If you want some "in-town" advice I was born here and know several different areas depending on where your work is or what demographic you are seeking. I am not a real estate agent and have no affiliation with any such but I have lived in a few different places around town plus I have two sons who are U of A grads and they have lived in different places, so we know more or less what is where. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

First, it really depends on where your work is. Second, how important is education to you? Here's my advice on different sides of town.
NW Tucson/Marana: "up and coming" area of town. Growing tremendously, but a lot of the conveniences aren't there yet. Also, Marana school district used to be good. But since Marana is growing by leaps and bounds, they can't keep up with the number of students and now they aren't so great.
Also, it's hotter there. No real escape to the mountains are they are a LONG drive. But from Marana, you can be in Phoenix in a little over an hour.

Mid Town: Don't know a whole lot. My husband works on Stone/Speedway and the police are in the area constantly. Also, TUSD (Tucson Unified School District) is awful. Most of its schools are low performing. It's a huge district and very poor. I don't live in town for that reason alone.

Amphi School District: West and North-ish side of town. Very nice area. Lots of beauty and nature. Amphi isn't the best district, but not as bad as TUSD. Also, Catalina school district is up north and that is a wonderful district...if you can afford the homes there.

South and southside: Houses are cheap for a reason. That's all I can say

Now on to my neck of the woods: East/North east. I live extreme NE and am in Tanque Verde School District. It's the only district that ONLY has highly performing and excelling schools. The rest all have at least one poorly performing school...except Catalina Schools might be the same. There is very little crime here, but it is close enough to everything...including Mt. Lemmon. It is only a 40 minute drive from my house to 20 degree cooler weather. Very few places in town can boast that. Homes can be on the pricey side, but well worth it. It is greener here as my area is called the "Tanque Verde Valley." And about 5 degrees cooler. Enough cooler that it can snow once a year!

Then there is Vail. Vail is very east and far from everything. But the homes are nice and it is beautiful. They are only getting a grocery store right now. The schools are good and are on a year-round schedule if you like that. But, like I said, if you work in Tucson, it's a really far drive.

Good luck finding a place to live!

Ok. Thought of some other tips. Typically, the northwest/extreme NW and north include the towns of Marana, Oro Valley and Catalina (the town of Catalina is not the same Catalina in which I talked about the school district). These areas are newer and look very California. All the houses look the same. My husband and I call it "the sea of sameness." They do have newer amenities. Of all those towns I mentioned, Oro Valley is the nicest, but the furthest from Tucson. But they have all the stores and good schools, so if you work in the town, you don't ever have to leave.

Then there is the southeast side...Rita Ranch is the huge main neighborhood name. This is Vail schools, but a little closer to Tucson. The homes typically are about 10 years old, but there are some newer hoods there. Again, a sea of sameness.

Then there is Sahaurita. Rancho Sahaurita is the big neighborhood there with lots of parks, a splash park, pool, fitness center, etc. Sea of sameness...but the amenities in the neighborhood are nice and the HOA fees aren't too bad.

The north and east sides of Tucson are older, with more mature trees (and lots more of them). The homes are older and don't all look alike. I find that it has a little more character. But just a little.

Overall, personally, I don't like Tucson. I don't find that it has great character, good schools are hard to come by unless you want to pay the money to get into a good district, crime is way high, many areas are dirty, etc. But that's just me. I find it a terrible place to raise kids with the lack of things to do. However, tons of people love it.

Good luck

I lived in Tucson and loved the East side and North side but now we live in Rancho Sahuarita which is 20 minutes south on the freeway. It is amazing here! We have everything right here check out the website it's pretty neat.

http://www.myranchosahuarita.com/HOME.ASPX

hope this helps!

http://www.greatschools.net/

This is a great website to compare schools in any city. When I bought my first house here, I used this website to find the best school for my stepson. Tanque Verde is a great school district but the houses are more expensive, and at that time we could not afford that area. We chose to move to Vail and love it!! The schools are fantastic and year round. I love it. They start mid July, have three weeks off in Sept/Oct, 2 weeks off at christmas, 2 weeks off in March and 7 weeks for the summer.

Yes Vail is further out east but beautiful and up and coming. They are building a Safeway Grocery Store, Walgreens, and McDonalds here. We also have a country club open to the public, beautiful golf course, Quiznos, a small restaurant, a dance school, and a small salon.

Here are a few websites to look at...

http://www.vailaz.com/
http://www.vail.k12.az.us/
http://www.ranchodellago.com/default1.htm
http://www.dellagogolf.com/

Hope this helps!!!!

We moved to Tucson 5 years ago from Minnesota and were very concerned that we got our children (then entering 4th grade and 7th grade) into schools that offered the same quality of education as they'd been used to. We chose to live in the Catalina Foothills School District (called "Foothills" for short) - here's the district website http://www.cfsd16.org/. We have been very happy with our choice. All schools in the district have always received an "excelling" ranking by the AZ Dept. of Education since those rankings began. The quality of teaching and standards for learning are high.

This is a smaller district than most in Tucson with 4 grade schools, two middle schools and one high school. The parent population really values education(lots of UA faculty, Raytheon engineers and other professionals) and the district responds to that. The graduation rate is nearly 100% and over 90% of the high school graduates go to college. The high school graduates are heavily recruited by colleges and universities - in one week in October last year, we had over 50 college recruiters visit the high school. Every year, there are graduating seniors who have been accepted into several top-ranked schools (a neighbor girl had to decide between Stanford, Brown or Harvard, poor thing). Many parents feel that the high school is basically a college prep school that they don't have to pay private school tuition for. The district has joined with the other Tucson area districs in a Joint Technological Education District (JTED) so students that are not so college-focused have options for career tracks that don't require a college degree.

The grade and middle schools were good places for my children - small class sizes, good learning environments and high educational standards. Discipline problems are minimal in all the schools.

Houses are more expensive in the district because people want their kids to go to these schools. However, this could be a really good time to buy into the district given the current housing market. The district also takes open-enrollment students from the surrounding districts, so some people buy a house close to the district boundry and apply to open-enroll.

The parent population is very involved in the schools. Some people in Tucson stereotype Foothills residents as a bunch of snobs, but that has not been my experience. Sure, there are some people with more money than sense and some who are pretty materialistic, but there are many, many more who give generously of their time, talent and resources to make their children's schools such good places. I started going to the Family Faculty Organization (FFO, which is the district's parent teacher group)meetings at my kids' schools right away when we moved here. I was warmly welcomed and have made many wonderful close friends through volunteering with the FFOs. There are many parents who work jobs that require long hours who still find a way to contribute. Living in this district has reinforced my conviction that public schools absolutely have to have an involved and committed community to thrive. All districts in Arizona receive the same amount of per-pupil funding and Arizona is at the bottom of the states in per-pupil funding, so it is really critical that the local communities pitch in and support their schools.

The Foothills are lovely. There are a variety of neighborhoods, ranging from older areas where the houses are pretty far apart to some newer developments where they are very close together. The older areas tend to have a lot more character. It feels like a small town up here. I can't go to the grocery store without running into at least one person I know. There is really only one park in the area, but most neighborhood homeowner's associations have a common area with a swimming pool - some with a swim club for the kids. The district also offers a community schools program for pre-schoolers on up to senior citizens with lots of recreation opportunities. There's also plenty of good restaurants and shopping (Tucson in general has good restaurants).

So, for us, this was a great choice. Good luck in making yours!

I see some good posts already but no one so far has mentioned that we have some great charter schools. I live on the east side of Tucson and we have everything located here. Some of the other areas mentioned (Vail & Sahuarita)are nice areas but you have to drive a bit to where all the good stuff is-malls/shopping/restaurants. Southeast (Rita Ranch) is less expensive and is more built up then the other two areas but it does have a higher crime rate than the east side and again you have to drive for the mall, ect.

There is everything for kids here on the eastside (the nw is really built up like us too) kids gyms, chuck e cheese, malls, ymca, skate parks, skating rink, lots of bowling choices, parks, pools, indoor play places-jumping castles, etc. I run a community garden where we have lots of free events for kids and families http://onegarden.info go to the Case Garden link.

Our housing economy is hurting so you will find some great deals! Good luck.

If you are looking at public school.. There is Vail school district- which is on the East side. On the North side there is Catalina Foothills. One of my favorite place _that I plan to move to once my kids are ready for school is Civano. They have a web page on the internet-- google it.. great neighborhood and great schools.

welcome to tucson

C.,

Rita Ranch is in the Vail School District, and is on the Southeast side of Tucson. Vail is also, but is further Southeast. Rancho Sahuarita is much further South, and well out of Tucson, but I also hear good things about it.

In Rita Ranch there is a Fry's (also known as Kroger's further East, or Ralph's on the West Coast) and a Safeway. They are building a Safeway in Vail. We're getting a Home Deport here in Rita Ranch. They will break ground in 2009. It is fast growing area and a good time to buy into it. It's a twenty minute commute to the furthest location of Raytheon, and an easy commute to Davis Monthan (the two largest employers) and not so bad for the University of Arizona if you take the right route.

For schooling, TUSD (more of central Tucson area) is not a great school district anymore, the far North side's Catalina Foothills District is good. Vail School District back down our way is wonderful. We're very happy with it here. It seems like you HAVE TO HAVE kids to live here. Must be in the CC&Rs. :)

~D.