Flagstaff's Big Wave

If southern Arizona is too hot and crowded for you, try northern Arizona. By the time you read this it may still be affordable. A downtown house in Flagstaff, a lovely college town, closed last month at $695,000 after a bidding war. By second home standards in other mountain communities, that's within reason. In 2004, the median home sale price in Flagstaff jumped 14.4 percent over 2003. That's just under the national hike of 15 percent, notes an Arizona newspaper.