I have written the if hasattr dance for properties that load once WAY too many times...

memoized_property.py

from functools import wraps

def memoized_property(fget):
    """
    Return a property attribute for new-style classes that only calls
    it's getter on the first property access. The result is stored
    and on subsequent accesses is returned, preventing the need to call
    the getter any more.

    http://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html#property
    """
    attr_name = u'_{}'.format(fget.__name__)
    @wraps(fget)
    def fget_memoized(self):
        if not hasattr(self, attr_name):
            setattr(self, attr_name, fget(self))
        return getattr(self, attr_name)
    return property(fget_memoized)

class A(object): 
    load_name_count = 0

    @memoized_property 
    def name(self):
        "name's docstring"
        self.load_name_count = self.load_name_count + 1
        return 'steven'

a = A()
assert a.load_name_count == 0
print a.name
assert a.load_name_count == 1
print a.name
assert a.load_name_count == 1
assert a.name == a._name
assert A.name.__doc__ == "name's docstring"