Arizona relo

[Koolau]

Traffic is getting more congested as growth continues. Driving time to anywhere from North Scottsdale is long. Being close to a freeway can save you significant time.

Sun City is now four communities - Sun City, Sun City West, Sun City Grand and Sun City Festival, west of Surprise. Sun City is an older, less affluent crowd with a lot of small and very dated houses and condos. Sun City West has some newer properties, but a lot date from the late 70's. Sun City Grand and Festival have modern stucco houses. You have to like the lifestyle to live there.

Perhaps 25 years now since I've been in Phoenix/Scottsdale/Sun City area. What I recall most is burning my hands on the steering wheel of the car and the TRAFFIC. I had rented a Geo Metro (or its equivalent - I forget). I just recall that getting from our hotel to My sister's place (on the freeway) felt like a suicide mission. With the Geo, you had your foot on the floor at all times - either on the gas or on the brake - there was nothing in between. I had the automatic and even with that driving style I still got 30+ mpg. YMMV

I DID love the dessert. It was a fascinating place - totally unlike the cornfields back home. The mountains were desolate but beautiful. We did the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff while there. It occurred to me at the time, a "rich" person (or at least well-off) person could split his time between Flagstaff in the summer and Phoenix area in the winter. It would be the best of both worlds.

By the way, EVERYBODY in the Phoenix area casually called "Sun City" SIN CITY. They did it so often they no longer even cracked a smile. I began to wonder if maybe there was a story there - but never got around to asking.

 

[zinger1457]

Perhaps 25 years now since I've been in Phoenix/Scottsdale/Sun City area.

The Phoenix metro area has really built up the freeway system (51, 101, 202, 303) in the last 25 years making it a lot easier to get around. Before the 101 was built it was quite a trek to get from the Airport to northern parts of Scottsdale.

 

[FreeBear]

It can easily be 110 to 115 in monsoon season and the humidity can be quite unpleasant. Suggest you book a stay in July to try it out.

Agreed that it would be wise to check out the summer months, although here in Tucson it peaks at "only" 106-112, still pretty hot! The conventional wisdom is to check out southern AZ in July, and I can't disagree, but a local gave great advice. He said to not come JUST for July/Aug, but stay from the cool season (say March/early Apr) THROUGH July. This allows you to gradually acclimate to the heat.

Call me crazy, but I normally hate heat and humidity and had only visited AZ in the winter. We moved down here without a summer visit, committing just to make it w*rk since we loved the area otherwise. "Winter" was great, but it hit 102F in late April. Well, we expected it to be hot and it certainly was. We switched to a morning schedule as it grew even hotter through the summer. Amazingly, we acclimated, surviving one of the hottest summers ever in Tucson.

We had to drive through flyover country last summer and would swelter at each rest break. It felt like 106F in Tucson, but it was only 86F with high humidity. Dry does make a difference!

How does New Mexico compare to AZ in terms of climate and amenities?

Never lived in NM, but we drive through regularly. There isn't anything a metro as Phoenix in NM, but Albuquerque NM is similar in size as Tucson. Albuquerque and the few other population centers sit at much higher elevation. So the winters are cold, with occasional snow, but then the summers are much cooler than Tucson & Phoenix. Pick your poison.

NM does feel very isolated geographically. Here in Tucson, Phoenix is close and Vegas and the west coast are a day's drive away.

I DID love the dessert. It was a fascinating place - totally unlike the cornfields back home. The mountains were desolate but beautiful. We did the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff while there. It occurred to me at the time, a "rich" person (or at least well-off) person could split his time between Flagstaff in the summer and Phoenix area in the winter. It would be the best of both worlds.

+1

I don't miss flatland cornfields at all. I don't miss cloudy brown and grey from Oct to April either.

 

[teej1985]

I lived in Scottsdale for a few years. June - September are miserable. Sometimes it gets miserable even earlier or later. You have to really love the heat to do Arizona unless you're inside 24/7 in which case it does not matter.

You want to live somewhere that has SRP electric rather than APS. Rates are much lower. But even APS is way lower than say California.

 

[ProspectiveBum]

Has anyone experienced summer in both Palm Springs and Tempe or Phoenix? I’m just curious if there’s much difference between the two spots, weather-wise.

I could see being retired in Palm Springs, since it would mean I wouldn’t have to be out and about in the worst of the heat. I wouldn’t enjoy being forced to commute in that kind of heat, though. Just wondering if Tempe/Phoenix are similar.

 

[zinger1457]

Palm Springs is probably a little hotter than Phoenix, both are miserable during the summer IMO. Depends on what you want, Phoenix certainly offers more big city amenities, major airport, pro sports teams, etc. I like Palm Springs, usually visit every year during spring or fall, always came across to me as a big +55 retirement community.

 

[ProspectiveBum]

Palm Springs is probably a little hotter than Phoenix, both are miserable during the summer IMO. Depends on what you want, Phoenix certainly offers more big city amenities, major airport, pro sports teams, etc. I like Palm Springs, usually visit every year during spring or fall, always came across to me as a big +55 retirement community.

Thanks. I definitely agree that they’re not similar as metro areas, I just wondered if Phoenix heat was worse. Sounds like as long as there’s a pool in the backyard, it’d be livable (for me, anyway). Anyway, I have no plans to leave SoCal, I was just curious.

 

[mojavesue]

How does New Mexico compare to AZ in terms of climate and amenities?

We have a place in Corrales NM which is just outside of Albuquerque. I have a friend in Tucson and think the 2 cities are comparable in terms of size and amenities. Climate wise Albuquerque is about 10 to 15 degrees cooler on average as its a mile high city but does get the same amount of sun during the year. We love it here but it is cold in the winter. Thats why we also have a "winter" place in Boulder City NV which is near the Hoover Dam outside of Las Vegas. Las Vegas has similar weather to Phoenix/Tucson area.

 

[grasshopper]

Perhaps 25 years now since I've been in Phoenix/Scottsdale/Sun City area. What I recall most is burning my hands on the steering wheel of the car and the TRAFFIC. :

Lived in the East Valley for 10 years, 15 years in south south Arizona. We would joke with family, but there was some that kept oven mitts in their car.

 

[teej1985]

Has anyone experienced summer in both Palm Springs and Tempe or Phoenix? I’m just curious if there’s much difference between the two spots, weather-wise.

I could see being retired in Palm Springs, since it would mean I wouldn’t have to be out and about in the worst of the heat. I wouldn’t enjoy being forced to commute in that kind of heat, though. Just wondering if Tempe/Phoenix are similar.

My parents live in the CA desert. AZ is a little worse in summer and a little bit cooler in winter.

 

[Ian S]

My parents live in the CA desert. AZ is a little worse in summer and a little bit cooler in winter.

Not so sure about that. Phoenix and Palm Springs are quite similar except Phoenix is at an elevation of 110 ft while Palm Springs is around 500 feet. According to this https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/...erages 299 sunny days,, on average, per year. Palm Springs is slightly hotter overall. One caveat, because it is so much larger, I would expect the heat island effect in Phoenix would make summer nights hotter.

 

[Ronstar]

^ maybe you have a typo. Phoenix is at an elevation of 1100’ (1124’ at sky harbor airport). Cooler and higher in far north Phoenix at an elevation of 2000’.

 

[Ian S]

^ maybe you have a typo. Phoenix is at an elevation of 1100’ (1124’ at sky harbor airport). Cooler and higher in far north Phoenix at an elevation of 2000’.

Yes, a typo. I forgot a zero.

 

[ncbill]

Curious that only one poster has mentioned Flagstaff (or nearby)...too cold, too small for most potential retirees?

 

[braumeister]

Curious that only one poster has mentioned Flagstaff (or nearby)...too cold, too small for most potential retirees?

Flagstaff is a nice town; I've enjoyed visiting many times. But I think retirees in general go to Arizona to get away from winter, and Flagstaff can get significant snowfalls at times.

 

[Ian S]

Curious that only one poster has mentioned Flagstaff (or nearby)...too cold, too small for most potential retirees?

Flagstaff has a real four season climate with cold and quite snowy winters averaging 81 inches of snow. However, you don't have the long periods of gray gloomy days that are so characteristic of the midwest and northeast winters. It is a nice-sized city of around 72,000 and, with its university (NAU), many amenities that go along with that. Summers are pleasant with quite frequent thunder storms. It is at an elevation of 7,000 ft so you will be huffing and puffing upon exertion if you are used to living at sea level. I would think the elevation could cause issues for some older folks with respiratory/heart problems.

 

[winyaz]

We'd be relocating from a high priced New England town to AZ. We'd love to trade our $9000-going-to-$10000 soon RE tax bill for $1000 in Sun City and we could "settle" for a $3000 tax bill in Scottsdale!

You should look at Anthem where your tax bill would probably be around $2000 and 30 minutes to Mayo, under an hour to all the major theaters, sports venues, airport, etc. 1.5 hours to Sedona (5? degrees cooler) or Prescott (10-15 degrees cooler) and under 2 hours to Flagstaff (20-30 degrees cooler) and under 7 hours to Southern California where we vacation every summer except this past one. Our temperatures tend to run a few degrees cooler than Phoenix and we have lots of pools here to cool off in. My wife and I walk most days. In the winter during the day, in the summer we go at sunset as it is cooling off. Rarely will we skip the walk or wait until dark because of heat, even last summer which was the hottest in the twenty years I've lived here. My mom walks at sunrise in the summer when it is even cooler.

 

[RobLJ]

Curious that only one poster has mentioned Flagstaff (or nearby)...too cold, too small for most potential retirees?

I had the same thought, but I like high elevation and don't mind snow. Reno is getting hot in July/August, so I've considered Flagstaff, which I always liked. Used to stop in it on the way from grad school in So Cal to visit the parental units in Colorado.

 

[NW-Bound]

... It's also worth bearing in mind (and it's fresh in mind for those of us who lived through last summer's record-breaking heat) that "feels like" daily highs of 105 degrees or more for 5+ months of the year are forecast to be the "new normal" going forward (and Phoenix/Maricopa are 5-8 degrees hotter than we are in Tucson). It's not the highs per se that get to you - it's waking up a 5 a.m. and having it already be 80-85 degrees...

Eh, the early morning low of 80-85F ain't that bad, and we would be lucky to have that.

I just looked up records from a local Wunderground personal weatherstation to refresh my memory. On July 31, 2020, the morning low was 99F.

Granted, the above was an extreme, and the low of the day was usually around 90F for the month of August. Occasionally, we do get a low of 80F, but it is an extreme, just like the 99F low above.

On the other hand, the highest high last year was only 118F, as recorded by the same personal weatherstation in my neighborhood.

 

[NW-Bound]

Also, we're considering zero energy footprint houses and green building options. If anyone has specific recommendations on local builders there or developments, please suggest. We'd consider other cities if the right development was out there.

If you have a larger lot, it's not hard to generate beaucoup electricity from solar panels. You can even live off the grid, provided that you are willing to pay for a large battery (several $10K) to store the juice to run the AC through the night. See my note in the post above, about the 99F temperature low at 5AM.

Prior to installing a DIY solar power+storage system, my highest daily consumption was 100 kWh/day on a terrible summer day. My August consumption was around 2700 kWh/month, and the bill was around $400.

With the solar system, my last August bill was $89 for 734 kWh. Of that 734 kWh, only 49 kWh was consumed during peak hours, and 685 kWh was during the off-peak period. The difference in price per kWh is 24c on peak, vs. 7c for off peak.

Perversely, I took more power from the grid in January despite the mild winter ($112 for 1100 kWh). This was because my ground-mounted solar array was blocked from sunlight due to my own 2-story home in the winter when the sun angle was low.

I tried to avoid mounting solar panels on the roof, but broke down and installed some to work around the shading problem. Will see how they help in the coming months, summer and winter. I already thought about adding some more panels on the roof.

If one has an acreage lot for a ground solar array, he does not have be afraid of the summer heat. Future water scarcity is going to be a tougher problem.

 

[BasketCase24]

We moved from rural IL to Sun City West in January 2020. SCW has four rec centers, I forget how many golf courses, and over 100 activity clubs. Our clubs of decision were the Auto Restoration Club (multiple lifts, full paint booth, many tools, friendly active group) weaving, pickle ball, woodworking shop to die for, etc.

Here’s some things we’ve learned. We bought a house with owned solar. We walked away from houses with leased solar. The agreement with the power company for solar is important.Arizona taxes retirement income, Illinois did not. There are ways to donate to schools and school support groups that are tax credits, which was important to us because SCW is not in a school district. Sales taxes vary from city to city, and vehicle registration is much more expensive than what we aid before.

SCW homes vary in age and energy efficiency. Ours had no insulation in garage attic, so it got really warm last summer which was very hot. We’re fixing that. Most of the homes have both natural gas and electric in utility locations, so you can pick your preference/efficiency. Right now SCW houses are selling as soon as they hit the market.

Home orientation is something we did not consider enough. As a result our patio is in full sun much of the afternoon and early evening. We’re working to add shade; check it before you buy.

We also looked at Prescott, but could not find a house near the downtown that we liked and could afford. There are seasons, it has a small Midwest town “feel” and there is good health care nearby. It’s also quite a drive to Phoenix, but it’s closer to Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and Flagstaff.

 

[meleana]

We have a neighbor who snow birds in Sun City (55+) in Arizona. She owns a home there and loves it. Not sure exactly where it is but I think it's near Scottsdale.


I also have other neighbors who love to vacation there and interestingly also to Aruba! (more desert).



I myself never liked the idea of living in a desert because of the water tables. I also hate extreme heat. Today in New England it is due to hit 50 degrees- a heat wave! Heck- this is short sleeve weather for New Englanders!



I remember being on a plane coming back from a vacation in Arizona and having a conversation with the woman sitting next to me. She had been visiting a friend in Scottsdale. She loved it and I asked her if she would consider moving there.



Surprisingly, she said - "Oh, no. If I lived there it would no longer be special". That always stuck with me and when we chose our retirement spot, for that and many other more practical reasons, we did not move to our favorite vacation state, but we are living next door to it.

 

[NW-Bound]

We have a neighbor who snow birds in Sun City (55+) in Arizona. She owns a home there and loves it. Not sure exactly where it is but I think it's near Scottsdale.

Scottsdale is east of downtown Phoenix, while Sun City is in the NW part of metropolitan Phoenix. Sun City is 15 miles from downtown Phoenix. We drive through Sun City when driving to Las Vegas. The community was already there when I came to Phoenix 46 years ago.

Just looked up the info, and learned that Sun City was started by developer Del Webb in 1960. It's been around a long time! I imagine back then, the community was far and detached from the established area of Phoenix/Scottsdale/Tempe, with desert or cotton fields in between.

 

[Rambler]

We moved to Gilbert, a bit further east of Scottsdale in 2018. We love it from mid October thru early June. We came from an area in CA that did have hot summer days (not as hot as here) but it cooled down overnight such that most mornings we were walking the dogs in sunny but not overbearing 68F mornings at around 7am. If we want to walk the dogs here in the mornings in the summer (or go for a run) before it is 85F, we’ve got to be out by 5:30am, and definitely back by 6:30. If you look at the averages for Gilbert (or SCW or Scottsdale) you’ll probably find the average low to be about 78 in the hot summer months, and the average high to be around 104/105. It is mostly a dry heat, so those temps don’t bother us too much. BUT, we had an extraordinary summer last year. We hit 110-115 so many times that I lost count. I think the average high for last year’s summer was probably 6-8 degrees higher than the long term average. When we moved here, my (now) 85 year old parents moved here as well, and I have a sister in the same town. We’ve come to the conclusion that we may want to either move to Prescott when they pass, or possibly buy a small second home in that general area or maybe Flagstaff. We’ll see what this summer brings.

One other thing to be aware of is the price of electricity. We have SRP (Salt River Project) electricity, and it is cheap compared to where we were in CA (about 1/3-1/4 the price per KWH) and we make use to their easy 3 program to keep the cost down (low price 21 hours a day, higher price during the peak hours that can be offset by pre-cooling/supercooling the home in the three hours before the peak). The other utility down here is CAP (if I remember correctly) and their per KWH prices are much higher. I would also advise that your home have two or more central A/C units. That way, if one goes down, you can at least get to sleep in another part of the home. Our home was only two years old when one of the units’ control board went out...we couldn’t have stayed in the house (in July) if the house had not had two AC units.

 

[Ian S]

One other thing to be aware of is the price of electricity. We have SRP (Salt River Project) electricity, and it is cheap compared to where we were in CA (about 1/3-1/4 the price per KWH) and we make use to their easy 3 program to keep the cost down (low price 21 hours a day, higher price during the peak hours that can be offset by pre-cooling/supercooling the home in the three hours before the peak). The other utility down here is CAP (if I remember correctly) and their per KWH prices are much higher. I would also advise that your home have two or more central A/C units. That way, if one goes down, you can at least get to sleep in another part of the home. Our home was only two years old when one of the units’ control board went out...we couldn’t have stayed in the house (in July) if the house had not had two AC units.

Actually, the other major utility in Arizona is APS (Arizona Public Service) and they have about 2.5X the number of customers as SRP. The latter is not for profit while APS is for profit and that probably accounts for the difference in rates (APS ~20% higher.) In any event you won't have a choice in electric utilities: it all depends on your home's location. While having SRP might be a minor advantage in home choice, it wouldn't be a deal maker or breaker for me.