AZ BS Thread 4²0

Wife is always bitching about the campfire smoke, so ordered one too. They're on sale right now, so figured I could use another piece of stupid expensive gear...

 

Only downside is the heat but you're used to that already.

 

Positive
Everything's new or newish relatively speaking
Well laid out grid making it somewhat easy to get to places at times.
Low property tax
For the most part pretty clean.
Decent food

Cons
Traffic at times
Everything's new. Miss the mom and pop type places that have been around for generations.
Snow birds
Tourists
Mid June through August

 

Yeah, the heat doesn't bother us too much. I figure once it gets over 100, hot is hot.

 

Thanks!

We are wanting to stay out West and due to work our options are Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Portland, or Seattle. We dislike the cold and Phoenix has the cheapest housing market it seems.

 

Good list! I'm gonna add a quick few of my own

Pros
Not that this is necessarily much better than Vegas, but access to wheeling and shooting is pretty top notch.
The Tacoma community out here is amazing, full of great people ready to lend a hand

Cons
Air pollution. Terrible air quality days a lot. Everyone runs leaf blowers and can't seem to figure out why they have valley fever.

If you can stand a small commute to get into the city proper, the outlying areas like Maricopa, San Tan Valley, etc. get you a whole hell of a lot for your money.

 

Stay out of sun city.. unless you’re 55. Then go ahead. Lol

 

Yeah, I'm on a couple of the Arizona Tacoma Facebook groups and they're a lot more active than Vegas.

I'm interested to see how air pollution compares to Vegas. I hate that I can't just leave the windows rolled down because of how terrible the air in Vegas is sometimes.

If we move there it would be to the South side of Phoenix around the Phoenix/Tempe line South of the airport. Not sure where the best areas to live are.

 

Chandler is next to Tempe... sort of. & it’s a nice area. Tempe is nice also.. construction is getting worse in a couple areas. Mainly the light rail going through mill smh. Lol

 

Actually it is the worst place to move...!!!



Just kidding. Arizona is the best. I live on the west side next to white tanks. Stay out of Central Phoenix as much as possible because I dislike traffic and crowded areas.

 

This is the worst time of year for bad air quality except when the dust storms roll in. On good days I can see all the way out to the estrella mountains from my place on bad days barely past Camelback which is roughly in the middle from my view

 

The farther from traffic the better. If we move there I'll be going to ASU so I'm thinking that the outskirts of the city where it's a bit more rural would be nice.

How are state taxes and vehicle registration taxes? I've never had to pay state taxes before.

 

Vehicle registration was a big adjustment for me, coming from PA where it's a flat $36 a year... Here in AZ it's a percentage of the assessed value. Not terrible if you drive cheaper cars, but if you're a baller it's gonna hurt.

State tax isn't that bad, 2.7% if I remember right. Opposite of PA where it was 5 or 6%.

Honestly what we need is a way to tax the shit out of snowbirds. If you can prove residency in at least July and August you get a credit.

 

I'm all for a snowbird tax lol. And because so many snowbirds own houses here or register cars here it's the only damn place where you can't get a decent resident rate at golf courses.

 

Yeah, vehicle registration is a shock to me too. In Texas where I'm from it was ~$70 a year. In Vegas they want about $600 a year.

 

Vehicle registration is pretty high compared to other states I hear. State taxes as in property tax???

 

The biggest Pro of AZ is you can get anything and everything related to it all. Where you live should be based on what type of life you want. If you like the "big city" condo with everything in walking distance.... we have that district. You want small, older houses, in nice neighborhoods with shopping just around the corner.... we got that district. You want a 3 car garage, 4 bedroom with no yard and neighbors that will never talk to you... you guessed it, we got that too. Looking for a few acres, maybe some horses or your own mini off-road obstacle course in the back... we got it.

We have every climate and every sport you could want.... most within a two hour drive from anywhere (unless you go to Tucson, then add +1 to that). You a cross country skier, or wanted to be since you where a small lad.... we got that. Shooting? Oh yeah, you know we got that. Mtn Biking, water skiing, hang gliding, scuba diving (yes, you would be shocked at the number of dive shops around here), snow skiing... you name it, we got it. A sport you might not be aware of is, festival beer garden hoping, oh yeas, we have so many outdoor festival (art, music, rainbow, weed, etc, etc) and they ALL have a beer garden. I just worked a cross-country running event, they even had a beer garden.

Now to truly scare you away from moving here, we have our own "Moving to Arizona? Visit this Thread!" thread.

Spoiler: We are no longer able to issue you your own bearded, flannel wearing, midget stripper with your welcome packet. Sorry.

 

I must have missed that cutoff too for my welcome package when I moved 3 years ago.

 

I need to snap a photo later on this morning...but wow the rain trashed my truck on the trail. I can only imagine how itchy the truck must feel. It was a good time yesterday!

 

For all of you Phx Bama fans............ ROLL TIDE!!!