Ficus is a terrible choice for the Valley. It's a water hog and too tender for most parts of the Valley. Good choice to look for an alternative. It doesn't seem wise to plant ANY tree only 4' from your house.

I'm not a fan of ficus because of frost. Yes, they come back once big enough, but the dead branches half to be pruned or looked at until new growth covers it up. I have some friends who had one in a small courtyard so very close to the foundation, no issues. People say lots of things and one of the fav is trees and foundations. This was in Carefree so much colder and that tree didn't have a lot of frost damage being surrounded by the house, so location does matter. It died at the top each winter, about 25-30' tall.

I didn't mind the frost damage at first...but after awhile I started to wonder why I was making myself deal with that when I had other choices. Ficus was removed.

Plus Ficus do drop leaves all year, but I'm not sure if enough to be an issue for you.

As far as mess, I can't really think of such a tree that would also get a clean bill from the foundation/root worriers.

Chinese Pistache? Too big?

Southern Live Oak? Clean up a couple of times a year too much?

I don't know if where you live allows this but I don't really remove tree droppings except maybe every 3 years or so. I create a large watering pan out to the tree's drip edge. Debris that falls outside the pan I rake into the pan and it stays there as a mulch. The birds spend a lot of time in there scratching for bugs, which toss a lot of mulch back outside the pan so not perfect. I think it looks good in a desert landscape, turf might be not as nice, and we enjoy watching the birds.

Texas Mountain Laurel
Texas Olive
Mulga Acacia

I would like to express my thanks for the suggestions.

Yes Chinese Pistache would be too big - trying to keep it smaller.
Live Oak would also be too big. I guess I should be looking for large bushes rather than trees.

I actually have a Texas Mountain Laurel in the back and the fragrance when it is flowering is amazing and can be overpowering. However every year it gets infested with the Genista caterpillar. Since it is mature they don't threaten its continued existence but I think they would present a real problem for a younger, just planted tree.

I have thought about a Texas Olive but isn't it supposed to be a slow grower? Will have to research the Mulga Acacia since I don't know what it is.

Other varieties I have been thinking about are the Arizona Rosewood and Mexican Buckeye but they are both supposed to be slow growers. I've also thought about the Mexican Bird of Paradise but I think they are supposed to have higher water needs than other Birds of Paradise and I currently don't have my irrigation system extended to the location where it would be placed. The Kidneywood seems to have all the things I am looking for - doesn't grow too big, low water needs, low litter, and at least a moderate growth rate. But I would like to have at least a few alternatives that fit my requirements.

All moderate to fast growers I know of are not low or even moderate water users. Kind of goes hand in hand.

For example I like Mexican Bird of Paradise which is a low water user, but doesn't grow fast without a lot of water. Given a lot of water it grows very fast and then water can be reduced. But to stay full requires a moderate amount. That's true for lots of low water plants. Fast growers are also what I think you might call messy...so those are out.

And that's somewhat true for the Chinese Pistache and Live Oak. If you hold back water you can just about stop growth. They can be effectively stunted. You do have some control over the size with water control and pruning.

However, what if we took another tact...What fits the bill is building a pergola or arbor and then putting a vine like Cat's Claw on it. Moderate water, fast grower, you control the height. Keep it say 3-4' from the building to reduce it getting on it.

Bougainvillea can be used like this too, but think it'd be messy for you. Lady Bank's Rose, Rosa banksiae would be another choice maybe if not too messy for you..

One of the biggest horticultural misconceptions is that evergreens don't drop leaves. Some are messier than deciduous. You have to ask yourself if you want to pick up leaves once a year or throughout the year.

I really like Mulgas because they actually look like small trees instead of big shrubs. They look great in both desert and Mediterranean themes.

I think Xylosma Congestum would also be perfect for you in that spot.

I thought of another possible solution...

Take a look at Redbuds (Cercis species). Might be a little hard to find (love the look of the Western variety, which is probably the most appropriate for us anyways). We need to plant more of these great trees in the southwest.

Once again thanks for the suggestions.

One of my neighbors who is a Snowbird has some kind of Bird of Paradise in his side yard. It gets no irrigation. In the late spring and early summer it did not look very good and I thought it might die but with the water from the Monsoon season it has really perked up. I have also seen others in my neighborhood and some can grow in the 8-10 ft size and be quite lush but based on what I see from my neighbor, I think the ones that look good all year around get irrigation.
Cat's Claw seems to be a rainforest native so I assume it requires more water. Redbuds seem to be a native of the Eastern US and require moist soil - a western variety was mentioned but I haven't been able to find a reference for that.
I also have a Bougainvillea in the back. I thought it had died during the frost in Jan 2013 but my neighbor told me to wait and it did come back, although it took nearly 2 years for it to grow back to near the size it used to be. But even without a frost I would need some sort of trellis for it to grow on and I am not looking to do that.
I've also found some info on Mulgas and Xylosma. They might work but I notice that the Mulga is from Australia, and Xylosma is from the Carribbean, which is closer. I'm trying to stay with native species here. I get some really terrible allergies (with my eyes itching like crazy) in January and my doctor blames non-native plants flowering in January.
As it stands right now, I will be looking at the Texas Olive, Mexican Bird of Paradise, and Arizona Yellow Bells. Also Kidneywood and Hop Bush. Probably won't cut down and replace the Shoestring Acacia until about March though, just in case there is another frost in January. I'd like to give any new bush/tree a full year to set and develop roots.

Autumn is the best time to plant trees and shrubs. The ground is still warm enough to promote root growth. In the spring the ground is cold even here in paradise.

I have a Mexican Bird of Paradise and it is by far my messiest tree, and I am pretty tolerant of plant messiness. I would not plant it again, although it is a fast and easy grower.

I really love my Texas Olive, to me it wasn't a slow grower. Not that messy and it's a pretty tree year round.

If you're still undecided, get a Mastic. We planted one on the west side of our house, I never water it, and it's so thick and lush, about 12' tall now. It's growing at a moderate rate, we've given it several fairly major trims in the last few years in fact. Roots aren't invasive.

It's actually a bush that you can train into a tree (though ours keeps trying to turn back into a bush!) Evergreen, very neat, drops its older leaves once a year, but they're small and leathery, so they stay put and don't blow around. No bugs and thick shade - the ground below it has no sunlight hitting it anywhere.

Mastic sounds interesting. Although a Mediterranean native I see it has been introduced to Mexico so I assume it will do ok in AZ. The wiki article also mentioned the summer rains should not hurt it and it seems to be able to thrive in just about any kind of soil. However I've never seen it around where I live so I wonder if its hard to get.

Basically I plan to narrow the choices down to 3 and then see which one my landscaper would favor.

Thanks for the heads up.

Give the Arizona Rosewood another look I love ours,almost no mess and small Non-Showy flowers that produce tiny berries for the birds.

I have an Arizona Rosewood and I also have an evergreen bird of paradise. The evergreen bird of paradise grows very fast compared to the Az rosewood but they are both beautiful trees.

I would never recommend a ficus here. But take a look at the Dodonea viscosa (Hopbush). It's a fast-growing shrub to 12-15' tall, evergreen, and...once established...very drought tolerant. I might water them once or twice in the summer and that's about it. I planted three on the east side of our house, in about a 6-8' wide area, and haven't had heat coming off those walls since. They're also a great replacement for the highly toxic oleander.

Arizona Rosewood and Hop Bush are both on my shortening list. However berries for birds is the very last thing I need. I have far more birds (the noisy large black ones) nesting in my trees than anyone else in my neighborhood. In the back I have 2 large palms in addition to the Texas Mountain Laurel and about 2 dozen mature (8ft+) Oleanders. Add 4 additional large palms in my front and my property seems to be a magnet for them. I would like to attract smaller birds that make more attractive sounds and don't drop such large bird poop all the time. My neighbor in the back has some hummingbirds nesting in her bushes and when I first saw one I thought it was a large flying insect - I was quite surprised at how small it was. I really like seeing them in the yard. I thought about a hummingbird feeder but considering all the insects I have in the yard, I think the nectar would go to them rather than the hummingbirds.

Just want to stick up a little for my buddy the oleander...hopbush contains the same toxic chemical cyanogenic glycosides that oleander contains, just in lower amounts. Both are toxic...as are tomato, potato and many plants. The toxic parts also taste horrible which is why oleander is everywhere and reported poisonings and deaths are extremely rare. My bet is more people have died trimming oleander than from poisonings.