How do you like Flagstaff? (Phoenix, Payson: housing, rental, travel)

[Nameless]

I was just on a trip with my family and we stayed the night in Flagstaff after spending the day at the Grand Canyon. How do you all like living there? The scenery and weather were absolutely gorgeous! 78 for a high and 48 for a low the day we were there! The dry air is a joy too. Overall it seems like a neat place, heck I may even consider NAU for college next year if it's as nice as it sounds. Oklahoma is great and it's my home, it's just time for something new

F.Y.I: Flagstaff is the only (emphasis on only) place I'd consider in Arizona. I know it's a dry heat, but being from Oklahoma I am sick of heat in general, dry or wet!

[kansaslady]

My husband and I visited the Flagstaff/Northern AZ area for many years and wanted to relocate there...but it never worked out for us (employment was the big issue). We fell in love with the beauty of the area and to this day would love to live there. I do understand that housing is very expensive and a many who live there relate that the wages are not as high as they should be. For us, it will have to just be a wonderful place to visit.

[Xpat]

I love Flagstaff. We lived there for three years and would love to go back - if only it wasn't for the economic factors. Single family home prices are very high (don't let the overall stats fool you) and there are few decent jobs in the area. Flagstaff is a great place to be if you have the money to survive (or are a young single person).

[biff3000]

I lived there from '92 through '06. Yes, it is beautiful and fun. The "poverty with a view" gets old after a while. So does the transient nature of the place, as people move there, find they can't afford it, and move on. Plus, for a city that gets 110 inches of snow per year, they sure don't do a very good job of dealing with it. My advice? Do not move there unless you have a job waiting for you, and you've checked an online cost-of-living calculator to make sure it's good enough. Otherwise, you'll be one of those transients....

[Nameless]

Is Flagstaff itself only expensive, or is the whole area as a whole costly?

[eddie gein]

Flagstaff will be big time sticker shock if you are from Oklahoma. All of Arizona is higher than Oklahoma by a lot but Flag and Sedona lead the pack.

NAU would be a fun place to go to school though. It is a fairly liberal "save the earth" type place that is about 20 thousand students. I went to the University of Arizona and got up to Flag a few times through the years and really enjoyed it. Like you, I came from Oklahoma and live there now but I enjoyed my excursion to Arizona. If so many people weren't moving there I would have stayed out there. When I lived there Oklahoma had more population than Arizona and now Arizona is has almost twice as many people as Oklahoma.

[victoriana]

Flag IS beautiful. The whole area is expensive - not just Flagstaff - to answer another person's question. If you are employed at NAU or with forestry, its fine. Other employment is service-oriented. With thousands of NAU students looking for parttime work, jobs don't have to pay much - and they don't. The rentals are sky high - because they can get it. Flag is liberal - definitely. If you are an RN, (like we were) they do not have to pay top notch either - because they know if you live in Flagstaff, you have no choices - you have to work at Flag Medical Center. Phoenix is not a commutable distance. Payson is a much more family-oriented town, I would say. Moneyed retirees are a large part of the population of Payson. Expensive yes, but then aren't all the gorgeous places in the Western U.S.? If I were rich, that is where I would live also. I don't blame the Californians one bit. I wish you the best. Flag is gorgeous but not a place to move to unless you have planned well and have a good job lined up.

[Rik Sorenson]

Thank you all for the interesting comments. It will help my son to read this.

Tnx again

[Ann_Heitland]

Originally Posted by Nameless

I was just on a trip with my family and we stayed the night in Flagstaff after spending the day at the Grand Canyon. How do you all like living there? The scenery and weather were absolutely gorgeous! 78 for a high and 48 for a low the day we were there! The dry air is a joy too. Overall it seems like a neat place, heck I may even consider NAU for college next year if it's as nice as it sounds. Oklahoma is great and it's my home, it's just time for something new

F.Y.I: Flagstaff is the only (emphasis on only) place I'd consider in Arizona. I know it's a dry heat, but being from Oklahoma I am sick of heat in general, dry or wet!

I love Flagstaff. I chose it as the best place in the west when I was leaving Chicago in the early '90s. Has worked out great for me.

[chill22]

I lived in Flagstaff for one year. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. Flagstaff is at the heart of some of the most beautiful natural places in the country. You will be 45 min from Red Rock country (Sedona), an hour and a half from the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest... the list goes on and on. Also, if your a liberal (like me) its probably one of the few places in Arizona that you will find even slightly hospitable (that unfortunately isn't saying much though). That being said, in my opinion that is largely where Flagstaff's charms end. I've lived in the Boston area, Boulder, CO, New York City, Chicago, Santa Cruz CA, Austin TX, Maui and Sydney, Australia and I've traveled alot. I've lived in a lot of places and thus have a good source of reference based on my experiences. If your traveling its one thing, your going to make the effort, but if you live there its kind of a pain to get out of Flag. Its pretty isolated. Flagstaff is socio-economically depressed and there isn't a whole lot of opportunity. There isn't much going on and I didn't feel a sense of community. It feels uneducated and uncultured, even with the university there. Although the areas outside of Flagstaff are incredible, Flagstaff itself isn't all that beautiful (try Boulder instead). And sorry, a few scraggly hippies begging for change downtown does not a progressive town make. Also, if your into warm weather, forget it. Flagstaff is a great base for the Grand Canyon and other attractions and that is about it. If thats enough for you, go for it. If not, I'd check out another location. Boulder, CO is more expensive but if you want a cool, progressive mountain town, that is where its at.