Gilbert teen competes in shooting tourney. PAGE 7
Gilbert real estate section
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
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This Week
13
Big water park in Gilbert delayed a year.
SPORTS.............................
29
Campo Verde football players tackle heat.
GETE OUT........................
32
Journey's frontman goes solo for benefit.
COMMUNITY.......................17 BUSINESS............................ 20 OPINION.............................. 26 SPORTS................................ 29 GETOUT................................32 CLASSIFIED.........................37
Sunday, July 21, 2019
7-figure home sales stoke Gilbert market BY PAUL MARYNIAK GSN Executive Editor
NEWS..................................
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
G
ilbert might not be Millionaires Row yet, but more luxury-home owners are flocking to the town. Between June 15 and July 8, records show, 15 single-family residential closed for at least $900,000 – and 10 homes went for seven figures. While analysts say seasonal factors may have generated the rash of so many highdollar closings in such a short period, they and local Realtors also say more people who can afford it see Gilbert as a great place for a luxury nest. Gilbert Realtor Mindy Jones Nevarez said people seeking special features such as lots of space and horse rights see Gilbert as a
value. “A lot of those home requirements you can’t get until you go further out in Scottsdale,” Jones Nevarez said, “unlike in Gilbert, where you get the best of both worlds – feeling like your house is a little bit country but you are just down the street from Santan Village or Queen Creek Market Place.” Realtor Tina Tamboer, who provides analyses of the Valley’s housing market for the respected Cromford Report, said the nice June weather probably influenced the number of sales in that time period. “We see most luxury home closings just before summer,” Tamboer said. “And this probably was because it was so nice in June. “Once it gets hot, a lot of the people who can afford luxury homes leave the Val-
ley,” she added, noting that another factor can be “if you have to air-condition a 10,000-square-foot house you’re not living in, you’re likely to take it off the market for a few months instead.” But Tamboer also echoed Jones Nevarez’s observation about Gilbert’s growing luxury home scene, where 26 seven-figure homes closed between Jan. 1 and June 30. “The Southeast Valley doesn’t have a large luxury market,” Tamboer said. “It’s small, but it’s growing.” Added Jones Nevarez: “You can still get more for your money in Gilbert than you can in Scottsdale, so we see many folks moving from the more northern parts of the city to
see MILLION page 6
It’s all over but the sighing as a new school year begins
BY GSN NEWS STAFF
O
ver 11,000 Higley Unified School District students head back for classes Monday. Higley has 13 campuses mostly in south Gilbert and north Queen Creek and is the smaller of two school districts in town. While Gilbert Public School students begin school on Aug. 1, other districts serving Gilbert children and teens start a new year this week as Chandler Unified starts Tuesday. Queen Creek Unified reopens Wednesday with two new schools in Mesa. That district is starting a high school in Eastmark and an elementary school in Cadence at Gateway. New for Higley and all other high school students this year is the mandatory requirement to take a financial literacy class. The requirement
see SCHOOL page 4
First-grade teacher Ali Lutz gets her classroom ready at Power Ranch Elementary as Highley Unified students prepare to begin the new school year.. (Kimberly Carrillo/
GSN Photographer)
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