Moved here about 15 months ago and probably will retire in a year. Give us an idea of your age, type of work you plan to do, and approximate house budget after you rent and that will give us an idea where to suggest you look first and what you should expect.
Keep in mind that the valley is huge — think 90 miles by 110 miles, or better.
You don’t want to spend all your time on freeways but the fringes are the best for most people past 35.
Unlicensed open and concealed carry is legal.
What else do you need to know?
I miss my family and friends, but I don't miss Phoenix any more. I don't miss the pollen or the air so dry my nose would bleed. I used to love the heat, but am glad to be away from it. I like all four seasons, but I do miss the smell of the desert after a rain.
My brother and I have hiked up to the top of almost all the mountains around the valley. One day sitting on top of one of the mountains looking down at the valley, I got to thinking about what happens if things go bad and I got stuck in that bowl in the desert with millions of others and only a few ways in or out. It got to me and I never could shake that off.
Once upon a time, they used to say to go there for your health, now they tell you to get out, and not just for the seasonal pollen and blowing dust.
The valley of the sun is like a bowl and in the winter the air often gets trapped in that bowl by the stagnant cold air and the bowl fills with all the pollution and all the dirt and dust. Not good for breathing. Nor is valley fever.
I've had the best times of my life there, met some of the best people I've known there and used to just love being there before it got so popular and then so crowded. But now? I could see moving up north, maybe Prescott or Flagstaff or in between, but not Phoenix.
It is a very unique place and has almost everything you could want in a place to live. Go out and see for yourself. It may be exactly what you're looking for.
It depends what you like. Extemely expensive electricity for the AC. If you like heat you’re in the rigt spot. If you like desert you’re in the rigt spot.
Myself, I prefer mountains with trees snow and rivers. You will have to driveto Flagstaff for treed mountains. I don’t care for heat so I couldn’t live there again.
One thing that is great are the evenings. It seems everyone invites you to a backyard BBQ and the nigt life is great in PHX and Scottsdale.
It depends what you like. Extemely expensive electricity for the AC. If you like heat you’re in the rigt spot. If you like desert you’re in the rigt spot.
Myself, I prefer mountains with trees snow and rivers. You will have to driveto Flagstaff for treed mountains. I don’t care for heat so I couldn’t live there again.
One thing that is great are the evenings. It seems everyone invites you to a backyard BBQ and the nigt life is great in PHX and Scottsdale.
Just like in DC, choose in the northwest quadrant. Or, plan to commute from someplace outside the city.
I would not willingly choose to live in an oven, even for 4 mouths out if the year.
I lived in Tucson for 8 years and loved it, I would go back in a heartbeat. It is 10 degrees cooler that Phx on the real hot days and always less humid. It is a dry heat and yes there is a difference.
Yes you can garden, just build above with R?R ties and get soil etc to have raised beds. Careful of direct all day sun, but it is sunny most days even during monsoon season. Rain and humidity rolls in in the afternoons, pours like hell and then goes. You feel the heat when it gets humid.
Phoenix (pronounced “Pee-nis”) has a marvelous invention if you have accommodations with it: the swamp cooler. From April to the end of the first week of July, the air is so dry that a swamp cooler can cool your place down close to chill for about a quarter of the cost of a/c. But when you need a/c you have to have it.
Do ask around about restaurants, because Phoenix metro, all 16,573 square miles of it, has an enormous assortment of restaurants.
Lots of people have guns here, open carry and concealed without licenses, so there really isn’t a whole lot of crime. Demographically, only 4% of the people in Arizona are black, so don’t be surprised at their absence.
The only real segregation is in retirement communities that want to stay that way, so while young people can visit, they aren’t encouraged to move in.
During the summer you will want to open a window, perhaps two or three to get a little breeze.
With Obama's threat to make electricity more and more expensive for us proletarians, factor those costs into your decision. Also think about what might happen if the electric grid should go down for a prolonged time due to sabotage, attack or ??? The S.W. is naurally a desert and also is in a serious drought. No one knows how long it will last.
50 year Mesa, AZ resident here.
If you are thinking of the suburbs and not Phoenix proper I would say look to the East Valley: Tempe is ASU & Liberal. south Tempe is ok. Mesa is conservative but slowly changing, Gilbert is pretty nice and very conservative (Mormons) Chandler is pretty good, not as conservative as Gilbert.
Ahwatukee is considered a part of the East Valley it is within the Phoenix city limits but separated from the rest of Phoenix by South Mountain. It’s pretty nice, tends to be conservative.
South, Central, East and West Phoenix, Glendale, Peoria and generally the west side of the metro area seem to have a high number of drive by shootings. It is a lot of railroad yards, tank farms, industrial plants, etc. The East Valley is more soft industry; Semi-conductor and light manufacturing.
North Phoenix is nice. Paradise Valley is very nice, Scottsdale north of Indian School Rd. is nice, especially far north Scottsdale. Fountain Hills is about 15 miles NE of the metro area but it’s nice because it’s removed from all the hub bub. Buckeye about 20 miles to the SW of Phoenix is new, growing and nice. Queen Creek and San Tan Valley are the new, growing areas in the far SE metro area but the infrastructure has not caught up with the growth there yet.
If you consider Mesa I would advise staying east of Gilbert Rd and north of University Dr. There are some very nice areas in NE Mesa. Living there would mean about a 1/2 hour commute to downtown Phoenix for your reference.
The weather is very, very nice for about 9 months out of the year and hot as hell for about 100 days.
Big city, lots to do. All four big pro sports, spring training, cultural activities and events, etc.
Message me with any more questions.
I haven’t read all the replies but of course you can have a garden! You will have to water it and often and if you’re good at those things you should put in a drip system.
You will have a really long growing season with heat units up the wazoo. You should be able to grow anything. You need to mind the season and not try to grow peas, carrots, lettuce....in the middle of the summer but if you do it right you can have produce pretty much all year round.
DO NOT USE A SWAMP COOLER. Modern ACs are just as effecient and don't bring in pollen.
You can carry a concealed weapon just about anywhere without a permit, even most banks. They just don't permit smoking.
The best thing of all? It gets real hot in the summer and the relatives stay away.
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Moved here from SoCal in '81 and plan to retire here. The town of Payson is 90 minutes from my driveway and that is where we are going to spend our summers when we retire.
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Lived there for decades. Loved it.
There are numerous good neighborhoods, but also a number of not-so-nice ones, but it is easy to tell by just driving around.
Weather good 9 months/year; hot and dry in summer except for mid-July through mid-August which gets storms from Gulf of Mexico which bring humidity. Good time for out of town vacation.
You never have to shovel sunshine or scrape it off your windshield... You can get out into the mountains or forests with a couple of hour drives.
If you prepare the soil well (natural clay... so add sand, mulch, etc.), you can plant and grow good gardens pretty much year round. We grew oranges, grapefruit, a few varieties of apples, tangelos, lemons, tomatoes, corn, asparagus, grapes, peppers, beans, a couple of varieties of apples, limes, artichokes, carrots, watermelon’s, and more... The county extension agent can tell you how to prep the soil, and once you’ve done that, the sun and water will do the rest...
Nice to do concealed carry without a permit.
What’s not to like???
Personally I wouldn’t want to live all the way out in the City of Maricopa... preferring instead north or northwest Phoenix, Scottsdale, northeast Mesa, or the newer parts of Chandler, Tempe or Gilbert (depending on where you will work).
glad for your job opportunities. i don’t have any, but don’t let that dissuade you. the most beautiful state. take many day trips (esp during the summer). don’t have vinyl seats in the summer. and you should be good to go.
Just down the street from me is about an acre garden with all kinds of vegetables and fruit trees. It has been going approx. 22 years. The only thing that may prevent you from having a garden is an HOA. Avoid them if you can.
It is hot here during the summer. The cool mountains about a hour and a half away.
No place is perfect, but this is better than most.
Twice a day they have the largest parking lots in the world, unfortunately they are highways.
My husband and I went to a Valentine’s party in the hills above the Biltmore Hotel. Everyone was trading stories of the cold the had escaped. These are people who made the move decades ago and have no intention of leaving The Valley of the Sun.
It is so hot in Phoenix, they don’t even have the yearly monsoons anymore. But they have plenty of water to have lawns.
Frankly, my heat quotations maxes out in the area I live north of Tucson. (Otherwise, I am very happy here.)
It’s a Tale of Two Cities: Phoenix grows business; Tucson discourages it.
Good luck in your new life in Phoenix. It’s a very optimistic place.