I’m fortunate to have a lot of friends across the country, both inside and outside the real estate space.

During the spring, fall and winter months, I have what I’m sure is an annoying propensity to gloat about the perfect weather in Phoenix. I like to send my friends messages about it being 80 degrees in January. This is particularly enjoyable when they are up to their elbows in snow. I send them photos of me riding around in my Jeep with the top down in December. I find this funny. It’s probably safe to assume they do not see the humor.

Invariably one or more of my friends will say something along the lines of, “Shut the hell up and talk to me in the summer!”

And here we are. June was quite lovely in Phoenix, and unusually cool. Sadly, temperature averages have a way of. . . well, averaging out over time.

Here’s the 5 day high and low temperature forecast for Phoenix (Gilbert actually, but close enough).

One of my favorite sayings – “You never have to shovel sunshine” – looses its effectiveness when it’s 117 freaking degrees outside.

Happy now?

Liberty Market in downtown Gilbert is rapidly escalating up the list of  my favorite places to eat, drink and be merry.

I’ve  had breakfast there several times, and it is always fabulous.  The Scramble’s are great, and the Breakfast Quesadilla easily violates the “never eat anything bigger than your head” rule that I break any chance I get. Throw in a Café Mocha bowl with a lump of home made chocolate whipped cream and you’ve got to spend a good hour at the gym to work that meal off.

Tonight, Liberty Market hosted “East Valley Friday Nights” – a weekly social gathering of people from across the East Valley organized primarily over Twitter (look for the #evfn hashtag). Anyone and everyone are welcome. The venue changes weekly and the agenda is formally billed as “Remember the agenda: no agenda. Have fun. Meet people. Party on!” The eclectic bunch of people that gather are a hoot to hang out with. (See the EVFN Upcoming Page for the current weeks venue.)

This was my first experience with Liberty Market’s lunch / dinner menu. Since Joe Johnston runs the place, and given my out-of-body experience with the breakfast food, I figured we were in for a treat.

And let me tell you, the food (and company) was outstanding!

I had the “Liberty Bowl” which consisted of roasted meatballs, marinara
sauce, pecorino romano cheese and grilled bread. I had to add the pasta too. Sinfully delicious. Francy had the Italia Sandwich, which is “sliced Molinari® salame, mortadella, sopressatta, dry cured Sicilian olives, roasted red pepper, provolone, olive oil, and balsamico”. I don’t even know what some of that stuff is, but it was outstanding.

Here are the breakfast, lunch/dinner, drinks and espresso menus.

Trust me, you want to check this place out. Joe (@RealJoe on Twitter) also heads up Joe’s Real B-B-Q and Joe’s Farm Grill (previously reviewed here). The man knows his food, and he’s a genuinely nice guy.

And get thee to East Valley Friday Nights. All the cool kids are doing it.

Some of the 67 in attendance for EVFN

Dan (@AZ_RE_Photog) and Joe Johnston (@RealJoe)

The Liberty Market Pizza Oven

Liberty Market
230 N. Gilbert Rd. @ Page St.
480.892.1900
info@libertymarket.com
http://www.libertymarket.com

Now this sounds interesting….

This weekend (March 7 and 8, 2009), the 21st Annual Great Arizona Beer Festival takes place at Tempe Beach Park.

Live music, food and of course beer – some 200 varieties – are on tap, so to speak.

Regular tickets are $40 in advance (hurry!) and $50 at the gate, but that includes entrance, live music, a souvenir mug and most importantly 24 tasting tickets. VIP tickets are also available that provide, well, VIP privileges.

In an act of supreme coolness, all proceeds go directly to Sun Sounds of Arizona, who provide reading / audio services for people who are blind or whose disability prevents them from reading printed material.

So if you are looking for something to do in the Phoenix area this weekend, it’s hard to beat a beer festival for a great cause.

More info here, or follow GreatAZBeerFest on Twitter.

Ahhh, Spring Training. It’s a baseball experience like no other. Cheap(er) tickets, players jogging on the warning path during the game, idyllic Phoenix weather. And it’s romantic! Francy and I had our first date at a Spring Training game. Whoda thunk 19 years after that Brewers vs. Cubs game we’d be married with two teenagers?

There are several Major League Baseball teams with spring training camps based in Phoenix that call the Cactus League home – the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, Anaheim Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland A’s, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, and San Francisco Giants. Other teams are based in Tucson and frequently play in Phoenix such as the Diamondbacks, White Sox (Whoops, they moved to Phoenix this year. Thanks Michael!), and Rockies.

There are a lot of games held in the Cactus League. “Split Squad” games are not uncommon. Teams split in half and play separately which is why on schedules you’ll occasionally see the same team playing two games, sometimes at the same time. (These split squad games are usually designated “ss” on schedules.)

If you’ve never been to a Spring Training game, you’re missing out on  a real treat. Trust me, just do it. You may wind up with a wife and two kids!

Get your 2009 Spring Training Schedule Here!

Here is  a downloadable Cactus League Spring Training baseball schedule (courtesy of AZHardball.com).

Speaking of AZHardball.com, my friend Paul Martinez runs that amazing blog site. If there is anything you want to know about baseball in Arizona, look no further than AZHardball. Seriously, it’s that good.

For whatever reason, it is tedious finding a chart for the average monthly temperature in Phoenix. They are out there for the temperature in Fahrenheit, but good luck finding anything in Celsius.

So being somewhat of a chart-o-holic, I made my own. The charts below show the average daily high and low by month, as well as the record highs and lows.

Enjoy. . .

Yep, it gets pretty toasty in the summer, but it’s hard to whine about an average high of 66 (19 C) in December and January. . .

Data from About.com.

It’s Thursday, and I just received my fifth call this week that started out something like this:

“I’m thinking about moving to Phoenix. What can you tell me about the real estate market and living there?”

A reasonable question that is just begging for a blog post. . .

10 Things You Need to Know about Moving to Phoenix

1. It gets really really hot in the summer. We’re talking burn your hands on the steering wheel, asphalt melting hot. I once cooked a pot roast in a rental car in the summer. Seriously. You could cut it with a fork.

2. The Phoenix winters on the other hand, are idyllic. Today is a perfect example — it’s January 22 at 3:42pm and the current temperature is 73 degrees (23C).

3. The Phoenix Metro area is HUGE. Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the country by population. I live in the southeast portion of the Valley and can easily put 75 miles on the car driving “across town”. The great thing about hugeness is you can find just about anything you need or want in this city. You want “urban life”? Got it. Quiet suburbia? Got that too. Heck, go a few miles out of town and you can hike for days without seeing another human being.

4. Contrary to popular belief, there is more than sand and cactus here. Phoenix is in the desert. But the Sonoran desert is the “greenest of deserts”. So we’re not talking Sahara kinda desert. We’ve got palm trees. And even grass (as long as you water the heck out of it in the summer).

Top 10 11 Reasons to Move to Phoenix

5. Despite being land locked, Phoenix is only 170 miles from the lovely beaches of Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. We’re closer to the beach than are Austin, Texas, or Charlotte, NC and WAY closer than Las Vegas (though you can drive to Vegas from Phoenix in under six hours).

6. Don’t want to drive to Vegas for casino gambling? No problem. There are several casinos on Native American land right here in Phoenix.

7. Skiing in the desert? OK, so you can’t snow ski in Phoenix. But you can drive to the Arizona Snow Bowl ski area area outside of Flagstaff in about 2.5 hours.

8. Skiing not your thing? How about golf? With over 200 golf courses, the National Golf Foundation dubbed Greater Phoenix the “Golf Capital of the World”. And if you are really into it, play 18 holes in the morning and drive up to Flagstaff for some skiing in the afternoon. People do it all the time.

9. Prefer watching sports over playing? Phoenix is home to major league baseball, football, basketball (mens and womens) and hockey teams. And don’t forget Major League Baseball Spring Training! Phoenix officially put an end to global warming as apparently hell froze over the day the Arizona Cardinals won a berth in Superbowl XLIII.

10. It’s easy to navigate in Phoenix. It’s laid out in one mile grids. Learn a few major east/west and north/south streets and you can never get lost. Just remember, Streets are east of Central, and Avenues are west of Central.

11. Whoops. We went to 11 things you need to know — the last being Phoenix is the home of the Best Damn Real Estate Blog on the Planet! At least according to Google… Need Phoenix real estate info? Look no further. Missing something? Ask.

Photo credit: Tombo the Tominator

Looking for something to do in Phoenix this weekend?

It may be difficult to find anything happening (said with dripping sarcasm).

In the “Hell has frozen over” category, we have the Arizona Cardinals hosting the NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale on Sunday. Tickets sold out in 6 minutes. Scalpers will be out in force (scalping is legal in Arizona – if done in person, it must take place at least 200 feet from the event. I guess the world tips off-axis if someone scalps a ticket at say 193 feet from the event).

The lowest face-value ticket is $120. Online sellers have been asking up to $1,000. But, you may be able to get a “deal” if you’re willing to wait until kickoff (or shortly after). It’s a economics thing. The scalper paid for a ticket. Come kickoff, they have two choices — sell that ticket or eat the cost entirely. They’ll sell them.

P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n Roll Marathon is also on Sunday. Here’s a fitness tip — it’s too late to start training. It will be quite the spectacle though as last year over 27,000 runners competed in the marathon and half marathon. Live music at every mile, perfect weather, and lots of festivities will make this interesting. Expect traffic in parts of Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe to be totally whacked from closed roads. Here is a course map:

The Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction winds up its eight day run in North Scottsdale this weekend. They have some amazing automobiles up for auction (want a 1959 Corvette with only 2,902 original miles? That’ll be cheap). It’s a great place to wander around, people watch, and look at cars you’ll never be able to afford.

The Maricopa County Home & Garden Show runs all weekend at the Arizona State Fairgrounds.

And then there is the Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival today through Sunday. Downtown Carefree hosts this festival, and admission is only $3. Live music, 165+ artists displaying their work, and more await you.

Closer to the Phoenix East Valley, the City of Chandler’s 14th Annual Multicultural Festival is Saturday from 11am – 4pm. Lots of activities for the entire family!

What will I be doing this weekend? Tonight is the first ever Phoenix Suns Tweet-Up event! Those that Twitter (and a LOT of Phoenix people do) and who bought “Tweep tickets” to the Suns – Timberwolves game are in for a treat tonight. The Mrs. and I will be in Section 207, Row 5 — friend us up!

Phoenix Fall – January 4, 2009

As I was cruising through the Higley Groves subdivision in Gilbert earlier today, the feeling of the fall season really hit me. It was a chilly 49 degrees, the sky looked wintery, and the trees that line the streets in Higley Groves had turned all those lovely orange and brown shades of autumn. Leaves were beginning to fall.

So while technically Fall began on the Autumnal Equinox — September 22, 2008 — and ended with the Winter Solstice on December 21, I’m proclaiming today, January 4, 2009 as the unofficial first day of Fall in Phoenix.

Winter is just around the corner.

I realize this proclamation may annoy our friends and readers in more northernly territories, but hey — this is one of the main reasons we live in Phoenix. While I do tend to get a little whiney in the summer when the temperature breeches 115, it’s pretty hard to complain about the fall and “winter” here.

Here’s a little graphic showing the typical Phoenix Fall weather:

Yesterday I head the temperature in Saskatoon, Canada where I have several friends was -53F. I don’t know if that was the wind chill or actual temperature. Whatever, -53 is simply ridiculous. Looks like it’s warmed up considerably today:

At this moment in time, Francy is out with clients from Edmonton and Grand Prairie, Alberta where it is practically balmy compared to Saskatoon:

I’ve never visited Edmonton (I have been to Saskatoon – in February). I suspect it is lovely city. I know the people there are great as without fail everyone we’ve ever met from Edmonton (and all across Canada) have been super nice people. Funny, friendly, caring people — we have thoroughly enjoyed meeting and getting to know lots of Canadians. I do wonder what goes through their heads when they look outside and see snow and temperatures well below zero. Of course they probably wonder what goes through our heads when we look outside and see gooey asphalt and temperatures well above 100…

So my fellow Phoenicians, enjoy the Fall. Winter will be here soon and you never know, we may have 4 or 5 weeks of it. No whining though!

Another shot of the Phoenix fall colors taken today

After more than a decade of planning, $1.4 billion dollars, and its share of controversy, the Phoenix light rail officially opened today.

Francy and I braved the coldest day of the year to join an estimated 200,000 other people in riding the rail.

Festivities took place all across the 20 mile route. We initially tried to get on at the far east end of the light rail route in Mesa. When presented with a line packed 15 deep, we decided to drive west a few stops where we were able to board in short order.

The train cars were packed….

But we had a great ride. We talked to a lot of different folks, got toes stepped on by obnoxious out of control kids and enjoyed some views of Mesa, Tempe and Phoenix that we rarely get to see as we’re normally focused on navigating traffic and not getting killed while we’re behind the wheel.

Right now the light rail doesn’t quite come far enough east to be convenient to us in most cases. Expansion is planned, but who knows how long (or how many dollars) that will take.

I can tell you one thing for sure though. If I’ve got a destination along the route, I’ll almost certainly take advantage of a Park & Ride, hop a train, and leave the downtown driving to someone else. The $1,400,000,000 question is, of course, how often will I have a destination that lies on the route?

If you want more info on light rail, go to the fabulous RailLife.com. It will have everything you need, and more. And who knows, maybe you’ll score a cool t-shirt.

See my Flickr Light Rail set for more light rail opening day pics.

Looking for something to in the Phoenix metro area on New Year’s Eve? I bet you can find something that appeals to you. Here are a few choices I compiled a list from various resources that cover all sorts of things to do come December 31. Welcome to Ringing in 2009, Phoenix Style!

First and foremost, I have to say — whatever you chose to do to celebrate New Years, please don’t drink and drive. Seriously, call a friend, call a cab, ride the light rail for FREE! Just don’t drive if you’re even slightly buzzed. It’s just not worth the consequences.

The Big Daddy

Fiesta Bowl Block Party – Mill Avenue and Tempe Beach Park. 40 bands on 11 stages. Styx is headlining. Party alongside 100,000+ people from 5:00pm – 1:00am. Fireworks, games, bands, carnival – this is the big show. $20 in advance, $25 at the gate.

The High Falutin’

Artrium Party at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix – 122 North 2nd Street, Phoenix. 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Admission include 4 drink tickets, light hor d’oeuvres, party favors and entertainment by The Groove Merchants — a ten piece horn band. $89 in advance, $99 at door.

IMPACT New Year’s Eve Charity Gala — Arizona Grand Resort. Plated dinner, silent auction, comedy show with Mark Cordes, keynote address by Ray Madaghiele, live band until 1 a.m. with B Platinum Entertainment, Champagne toast at midnight, party favors. Proceeds go to the House of Refuge in Mesa, AZ. $89 in advance, $125 at some point. Pre-registration required.

Phoenix Symphony New Year’s Eve Concert — Symphony Hall, Phoenix. “A Tribute to Broadway”. Ticket includes a complimentary glass of champagne. $26 – $76.

Rocking It

Last Exit New Years Eve Bash — Featuring The Black Moods, Tramps & Theives, Dead Hot Workshop, Shelby James & The Crying Shames. 1425 W. Southern Ave. Tempe, AZ Doors open at 8:00pm. $10. 21+ only.

New Year’s Eve Blues Spectacular — Rythm Room Concert Club. Big Pete Pearson, Bob Corritore, Chris James, Patrick Rynn, Brian Fahey and Tomcat Courtney. 1019 E. Indian School RD. Phoenix, AZ. Doors open at 8:00pm. $15.

Scottsdale Ultimate Block Party — Craftsman Court (between 3rd and 5th Avenues). Five bands including the Gin Blossoms and The Dan Band. Midnight fireworks. $20

Westgate Rocks New Year’s Eve Party — The Rock of Ages Theme will feature music, fashion and entertainment spanning the decades, highlighted by specials at Westgate’s many bars and restaurants and live entertainment from DJ Soulman and Valley-favorite Metalhead. 21+ Loop 101 & Glendale Ave – Waterdance Plaza. $20 in advance, $30 at door. $15 military discount.

Healthy

Midnight Madness Three-mile Run & Walk — Rose Mofford Sports Complex. 9833 N. 25th Avenue. Phoenix, AZ 85021 $20 until 12/23, $25 after.

Family Style

New Year’s Eve Family Desert Party — Rawhide at Wildhorse Pass on the Mission Patio. Cash bar. Dinner buffet (burgers, hot dogs, ribs) starts at 8:30 p.m. Marshmallow Roast. Entertainment includes cowboy atmosphere, dancing, live music, fireworks, family cowboy games, party favors. $45 for adults and $35 for children 12 and under.

New Year’s Eve at the Phoenix Zoo — 9:00am – noon. Live music, fun and games with Radio Disney, prize drawings and give-aways. SNOW!  Special bubbly toast at noon for kids to ring in the new year. Free for members or with regular Zoo admission.

Town of Gilbert Mayor’s New Year’s Eve Party — 8:00pm – midnight. An alcohol free event. Family and teen music, activities for all ages. McQueen Park Activity Center. 510 N. Horne St, Gilbert, AZ. $5/family, $2/person at the door.

Westgate Rocks New Years Fountain Park Family Fun — Ring in the New Year a little earlier.  For the young and young-at-heart, family-friendly events will include live music, group games, arts and crafts, and a magician, face painter and caricature artist.  This celebration is free and open to all ages and will ring in the New Year at 10 p.m. Loop 101 & Glendale Ave – Fountain Park.

Other Stuff

Just about every resort in the area will have a New Year’s Eve event, with a varied assortment of activities, and prices. Most bars and clubs will also hold events — call ahead.

Enjoy your New Year’s celebrations! I hate to harp on it, but please don’t drink and drive. Having witnessed up close and personal a drunk driving tragedy this year I can assure you that it sucks beyond belief. You don’t want to start off 2009 sitting in jail, or worse.