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Tucson Homeowners Alliance
Better homes through
community
Sustainability in action!
"The definition of insanity is doing
the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."
- Albert Einstein
 The
Tucson Homeowners Alliance is a
comprehensive community approach to helping homeowners have much better homes
at much lower costs. It's based on a community network linking homeowners with
experts and others knowledgeable in the field and other homeowners who have
experience and knowledge to share.
Advances in design and technology
are leading a revolution in living better, more affordably. Join with us in
sharing good ideas and experience.
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The latest help for you from the Homeowners
Alliance
 How to deal with soaring home
costs
» In June, the federal government reported that
the price of homes in Tucson jumped more than 24 percent over the previous year
— the highest increase in the nation. Last year, the increase was more
than 29 percent. Over the past 5 years, the increase was over 86%. - Arizona
Daily Star, September 6, 2006.
How to deal with record energy
costs
» This year, the price of oil, natural gas,
electricity and other forms of energy all hit new record highs again - U.S.
Energy Information Agency, October 13, 2006
» Tucson Electric Power
recently proposed a 23% rate increase. - » Arizona Daily Star, August
19, 2006
The Tucson Homeowners Alliance has
solutions for you.
Not many people realize that it is
possible to substantially reduce the costs of home ownership. Studies by the
Next Generation Home Alliance analyzed all of the major costs of home ownership
in Tucson and then determined how to reduce them. Designing and building a new
home the right way can result in savings as much as 75-80% for things like gas
and electric costs, and other operations, maintenance and repair costs. Savings
for existing homes are also be substantial.
To help you do
that, the Tucson Homeowners Alliance now offers information, consulting and
referral services for members of any of its family of community organizations,
generally at very good discounts. Others have done this - we can show you
how.
Click here for information on how to get in touch with us.
New information, consulting and referral
services. The Solar Institute's family of community organizations
now offer expert help for a wide range of services and products for your home
and business. It's a non-profit, non-commercial, community sharing program that
helps you get the best unbiased expert information and advise to satisfy your
needs and the best value for your money. Join the Tucson Solar Alliance or the
Tucson Homeowners Alliance and you can get simple questions answered at no
charge, as well as complete consulting at greatly reduced rates. This works
like Consumer Reports: these organizations are not affiliated in any way with
any business and do not receive money or other considerations from any
commercial enterprise. Click here for information on how to get in touch with us.
The Next Generation Affordable Housing Project is
looking for volunteers to help non-profit housing providers design and build a
new generation of much better, much more affordable homes for those who need
them most. You too can help - and learn while you are helping others! There are
many ways you can help and no experience is necessary. Click here for
more
information. |
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More solutions, more help
Homeowners unite!
Join the Tucson
Homeowners Alliance to share and obtain information, ideas and
experience in owning, operating and maintaining your home. In the immortal
words of Benjamin Franklin, we can hang together or we will most assuredly hang
separately.
Caution: Firing up your heater can be bad for your
health. Remember what the air in your house felt like last time you
did this? It was a warning. Dust gathers in your house and ducts and, when
sucked into your heater, is turned into a witch's brew of nasty airborn
chemicals. See the special section on Fall Home Tips for how to deal with this. Now
that cooler weather is back, our compilation of practical information and ideas
can help you get your home maintenance work off to a good start.
Thinking of hiring a contractor? The number one
source of complaints from homeowners is problems with contractors. Our
compilation of Tips for
Hiring a Contractor can help you get started in learning from
other people's experience and avoiding pitfalls.
Help on rising property taxes. The average
valuation of homes for tax purposes jumped 30% this year according to the
Pima County Assessor's Office in Tucson. For some, the increase was even more.
That's on top of an average increase of 19% in 2005 and 11% in 2004. Learn more
about why this is happening and what you can do about it.
The Homeowners
Alliance has compiled an overview of how property taxation works in Pima County
and steps you can take to be sure that you are being taxed fairly. See
Property Taxes - What You
Can Do
Solar Institute sets record straight on
summer comfort. The front page of the Arizona Daily Star
featured advice from the Solar Institute on how to stay comfortable at low
cost. Click here to see the article and get more
information. |
Background
 Local, state and national leaders warn of a growing crisis in the rising cost of housing and it
is becoming a serious concern to almost everyone. Home prices in Tucson and
Pima County have been increasing at an annual rate of around 13% and rents at a
rate of around 10%, yet wages have remained almost constant. The average price
of single family residences here has soared to over $260,000. The average home
is getting out of reach of the average family.
Efforts to improve "affordability"
of houses generally focus on shaving initial construction costs, but this can
be false economy. Cheaper materials and products generally impose higher
maintenance and repair costs. Also, as long-time homeowners know, it doesn't
take many years before rising utility bills start exceeding the mortgage
payment. Real, long term housing costs are dominated by operations,
maintenance, financing and other costs.
Prices for energy, water and
building materials have risen, year by year, at alarming rates, for fundamental
reasons that are not going to change. The costs of building, maintaining and
repairing homes are skyrocketing. The situation can only get worse. It is clear
that old paradigm houses that depend on cheap resources are fast becoming
uncomfortable and unaffordable dinosaurs – serious problems for their
owners and communities.
Meanwhile, the houses built during
the great post-World War II housing boom are approaching 50 years of age. Many
are in serious need of upgrade and repair. Some are so bad that they are being
abandoned by both occupants and owners.
However, as stated by top
officials of of both the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and
U.S. Department of Energy, Tucson and Pima County are
recognized as a world leader in alternative home building, solar
energy and sustainable development.
Advances in design and technology
proven in the custom home market have made it possible to greatly reduce
operating and maintenance costs, while also raising comfort, practicality,
safety, health and other values. These measures add up to much better homes at
much lower cost. This is what sustainability means to you.
There are many aspects to this
problem, but we – as a community – have the solutions needed to
change this dramatically. The Tucson Homeowners
Alliance brings together the broad voluntary support of many
individuals, organizations, agencies and businesses to plan, design, build,
repair and renovate houses with an emphasis on much greater quality and long
term affordability.
You can learn how to do it and
contribute your own ideas and experience to this network in many ways. Tours
and workshops put you in touch with local experts and innovative home owners to
give you opportunities to see what you can do and how to do it. You can hear
about new ideas and new products from others who have tried them. You can also
learn how to access new products and services at better prices.
Seven Keys to a
Better Home
A revolution in housing is taking shape - and Tucson
is nationally recognized as being in the forefront of it. Click here for a look
at key concepts for designing, building and renovating for a better home that
can cost much less.
Seven Keys to a Better
Home - the home of the
future can be yours today.
Community Service
The Next Generation Affordable Housing
Project, one of our community projects, has now completed its fifth
phase of work. It focuses on helping the City and County and local non-profit
housing providers to develop a new generation of high quality houses that cost
little more than current construction, but offer much greater long-term
savings, higher quality and a better home environment. That's the biggest
challenge. In doing that, we can help everyone in similar ways.
Now we
are starting the next phase of the project: designing and building.
Volunteers are needed right now to help organize and carry out this big
effort. We invite you to join in this remarkable community work to make better
homes a reality for everyone. If you are interested in how to have a much
better home that costs much less, this is your opportunity to learn about it
and help others who need it most. No matter what your background, you can help.
Please get in touch with us
today.
What You
Can Do
Participants and
supporters of this community initiative include many individuals,
organizations, businesses, educational institutions and government. Anyone who
has lived in a house can raise questions or contribute ideas to this. Anyone
who lives in a house can learn from it.
If you would like to
participate, help or contribute in some other way, please
get in touch with us.
You Are
Invited
We invite you to become a
part of this community sharing too. Share your dreams for the future and, in
return, connect with communty knowledge and experience for your own use.
Together we can make better homes and communities. Put the power of community
on your side. Join the Tucson Homeowners
Alliance. Here's
how!
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Site. This site does not use cookies or any other
information-gathering devices on visitors. We try to make this site as
accessible and useful as possible. If you encounter problems or have
suggestions, please be sure to let us know. Thank you!
Credits: We would like to thank
the City of Tucson, Pima County and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development for support and funding, as well as the many organizations and
individuals who have contributed to making these community initiatives such a
success.
© Copyright 2007 Solar
Institute, Inc. ® Solar Alliance, Tucson Solar Alliance, Solar Alliance of
Greater Tucson, Tucson Innovative Home Tour, Next Generation Home, Next
Generation Home Alliance, Next Generation Building Institute, Tucson Homeowners
Alliance, Natural Living Alliance and Tucson Community Solar Program are
registered trade names of the Solar Institute. All rights reserved.
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