Basements a growing demand in Tucson and Phoenix

It seems that basements are becoming a popular request with some Arizona home buyers, and a Phoenix builder is offering this option to meet the growing demand. Scottsdale-based Maracay Homes has been building homes with basements in Phoenix for about four years, and they started offering basement homes in Rancho Sahuarita last year. Home buyers that request the basement option are usually from parts of the country where basements are standard, like the Midwest and Northeast. The cost of a basement option is high; between $80K to $100K on top of the base home price. Why so expensive? If you've ever tried to plant anything in the Arizona soil then you'll understand why; the ground is full of caliche and rock, making it impossible to dig. It can literally take an hour to dig a one foot deep hole, depending on what the soil is like in your yard. That's why landscape companies are so popular in Arizona; they've got the right kind of tools to take care of the job.

I'm originally from the Midwest and I was never very partial to basements myself. Too many flashbacks to my family hovering under the stairway as the tornado sirens sounded, me with a box of RITZ crackers and my dad with a transistor radio....

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