Arizona When I Retire

Prescott, Flagstaff area, Payson are a few just off the top of my head. I have a vacation home in Prescott on about 2 acres and may retire there myself.

 

Also depends on what you really like. In the valley there are nice spots of county land that you can kind of do what you want on but still have all the advantages of being in a big city. Fountain Hills, North Scottsdale and Gilbert are all nice. The valley though gets insanely hot. Prescott, Strawberry, Payson are nice but not with all the access a big city brings.

 

Robbie, in the role he was born to play . . . as Charles Bronson . . . in the role he was born to play . . . as Paul Kersey . . . in . . . .Death Wish 6 - Back to the Desert.
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Well I can point you to a top notch realtor if you'd like.

 

My mother lives in Sun City West. It's a totally planned community for retirees. She loves it.

She has a nice 2 bedroom, 2 car garage house with a little back yard in a quiet neighborhood. I think her place is something like $150K. The HOA is like 40 bucks a month.

There are plenty of activities/hospitals/churches, etc in the community. Even the local grocery stores are set up for easy living and the streets are golf cart legal.

This doesn't sound what you're looking for but there are quite a few communities designed just for retirement living in Arizona.

 

I'm not even sure the realtors know who is top-notch anymore.......I suppose the first cut was the "abandon my career and get rich quick in real estate" bunch who have long ago joined the unemployment lines.

 

I'm not sure if you're just being funny but that's actually a rather unfair statement. Cream always rises to the top. Remember, only the strong survive.

 

FWIW...Per a graphic in the May issue of Money, Arizona is second only to Nevada is terms of highest % of homes underwater (51% for AZ, 70% for NV). Same graphic shows AZ's "recovery year" as 2034 and NV's as 2033. Yikes.

 

Hysterical!

Those who have and are sticking out the slump will be the best in the future for sure.

 

Well, "recovery year" probably equates to when values are the same as before they tanked. That is really not a concern if you are buying in at this point.

Many sellers have apparently adjusted to the new reality, dropped their prices, and sales have picked up in the last month to 6 weeks. If it's not the bottom, it is damn close now.

Prescott is a mid-elevation area, which escapes both the blistering Phoenix summer heat, as well as most of the snow that the higher elevations have to deal with. It has a nice little park square downtown, and as a bonus has an extremely colorful history to regale your eastern visitors with. As noted above, it lacks the services that a metropolitan area has (e.g. clubs, Ferrari dealer, symphony orchestra, etc.) Still, it is not what you would call a small town.

 

You could always shackup with the state Senate: "...To ease its deficit, Arizona sold stakes in several office buildings, including the home of the state Senate..."

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/realestate/commercial/05states.html?ref=realestate

 

Finding 4-5 acres close in to the 2 main metros may be a challenge. Check Prescott winters to see if it meets your "tired of the cold" requirements. Flag definitely gets dumped on.

The Phoenix metro area offers all the trappings of any big city - which is handy. But it also has all the same down sides, being a concrete jungle (can you say, heat soak?). From my experience, extreme Northeast like Cave Creek area might be what you want but it won't be cheap (I really like that area - 1st choice if I had to live around Phx). Southeast around Gold Canyon may also be an option. Not personally a fan of the west side. Just my opinion. Not sure what all is straight north towards Wikieup.

Obviously I'm a fan of the Southern part of AZ around Tucson. Its big enough to fly, shop, dine, golf, whatever but small enough you sometimes wish it was bigger. Southeast of Tucson is Sonoita area that is great ranch lands with more mild summers. A ways further south is the old mining town of Bisbee that sports a bit of an artsy flair these days. There is still property to be had around Sahuarita/Green Valley straight south or further down towards Tubac. The downside as you get closer to the border is the potential to deal with crossers in certain areas.

 

My place in Cave Creek will be available next year sometime, I need a year to finish up restorations and move my stuff to Big Island...I have two lots, 3.7 Acres, 4700 Sq ft 4 Bdrm, 3 bath, 8 car carage and workshop, two elec meters 500A. Lift, Zoned for home based car restoration, guesthouse, pool. Seperate deeded builadble 1.4 Acre lot is included..10 min down town Cave Creek. 30 min to Phoenix/ Scottsdale..Address is 41755 N Old Stage rd Cave Creek AZ 85331. $667,000. OBO.
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I'm a little farther up in New River but back up to the Tonto National Forrest on three sides, and am at the end of the road. Ex-cops and Sherriffs are my neighbors (safe x10) no one messes with us. It is great living 10 months of the year. Yea we get a few months of wicked heat but that is what vacations to Cali, Colo, Nortwest and HI or for. I'd suggest some visits to the Cave Creek area also if you want to be a liitle closer to some serious Scottsdale shopping (IE the wife will love it). Mine loves her horses with 100s of miles of trails right outside our back door. Build your dream garage and put in the "Desertscape" and leave the lawnmover in DC. I can't say more about the good people here in AZ also this is car heaven...... come on in the water is fine.

 

There are professionals who will survive and adapt, but this down-turn has driven out the hobbyist realtors. At the height of the market, about 10% of those employed in other professional careers in Phoenix had their fingers in the real estate business as agents, spouses of agents, landlords, etc. Even very successful career real estate brokers in AZ got left holding homes they were flipping.

 

When I left Ohio, I first lived in Albuquerque. Unless you are into skiing, golf, or tennis, other than the beauty of the area I was bored.

Then I spent 4 years in Scottsdale. Each year I disliked it more and more. The summer heat, forget that "no humidity crap", anything over 110 is crazy, I just hated it. In the winter, you could have some great days, but then it the desert can get below freezing a few times too often. Then we lost the Lunt Avenue Marble Club, Phoenix became intolerable for me.

I got transferred to Boca Raton, been there for over 20 years, and I love it. Sure, for a car person, it is terrific. I do not mind the summer weather and the humidity, reminds me of Ohio in the summer. But we are in air-conditioned cars, homes, offices, malls, etc. I can tolerate that for 3 months, but I just was not one for Phoenix summers.

If I were to go back, and give up attending automotive events (somehow PIR does not compare to Daytona, Sebring, even Homestead), I would live in Sedona.

Either place, unless I am living in Switzerland, I never want to scrape ice from a windshield again.

Good luck.

 

My place here in Cave Creek is paved Just the circular drive is gravel main driveway is pavers.

 

For land that's close, but not too close, consider either Carefree/Cave Creek as previously mentioned or the 85262 zip code of Scottsdale. I would buy land and/or a home in 85262 if I didn't need to be closer for work and school for the kids.

Here's a listing for 9 acres in 85262 from realtor - hope posting this here isn't stepping on any toes or breaking rules, I'm not an agent or anything, just like to look this stuff up:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/29202-N-168Th-Street_Scottsdale_AZ_85262_1116105136#Detail

As far as rainfall, I think metro Phoenix gets less than 10" a year... we will regularly go 100 days with no rain at all.

Prescott as mentioned before is nice, but will get snow.

You had also mentioned pollen, I have been told (because I have terrible allergies) that here in metro Phoenix we have five "growing seasons," and so we have quite a bit of pollen flying around, and not much rain to keep it down.

Hope that helps.

 

Presume you mean the roof lines? Its a combo of style and addressing heat. We don't have to engineer for snow weight or frequent rain so a "flat" roof with a bright white rubberized coating that reflects the sun is preferable to a pitched roof with asphalt shingles or tiles that can blow off during monsoons.

Stucco is just a kind of cement like plaster on the side instead of actual siding. Usually covers concrete block or wood frame construction. Its a style & protective feature from when houses were built from adobe.

As a side tip... consider heat/sun in your home's placement & layout. You often consider opposite conditions here on the placement of your porch/patio areas, where south/west facing may feature nice sunsets but will bake you 6mos of the year vs. north/east facing that are shaded and more usable during the warm months. Same with south/west facing windows that lack roller shades, etc.

Good luck.