Arizona Relocation Someday (Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff: home, job market, buy)

[IowaRose]

It snowed again yesterday and my husband and I are particularly tired of winter in Iowa this year. Every winter he talks about moving south. This year he is stuck on Texas, but the more I read about Arizona, I think I like it better than Texas. Property taxes seem lower in Arizona than Texas. Where we live now everything revolves around church and car races on the dirt track. There are more churches in this town than restaurants and bars. When I think of Texas, I think Bible belt and not necessarily where I would want to live.

We are young enough, mid 40's, that we still need to work. What is the economy like in Arizona? I have worked in an architecture firm as a CAD drafter and have since gone back to school and have a Bachelor's degree in accounting. (I know, a completely different field, but I was able to go to night school and keep my day job, so I could graduate debt free. Also thinking that more companies need an accountant or bookkeeper than a CAD drafter.) My husband has several years of experience in the printing industry with a small company that folded during the recession. He is working on finishing up an associate's degree he started years ago and might major in computer networking this time.

I think we would like a small to medium sized city, possibly northern Arizona. We have been to Page and the Grand Canyon area and enjoyed it, but it seemed like there weren't many job opportunities there. I would like mainly to live someplace where we could buy a small home and have it completely paid off in 15 years or less and each not have to work 50+ hours every week to accomplish that.

So, what are some good places in Arizona to relocate to for people our age?

[observer53]

You aren't going to find a very vibrant job market in any of the smaller towns/cities in northern Arizona. The two largest are Flagstaff and Prescott. You might find something in one of those two places, but the far greater number of potential jobs are in metro Phoenix and, to a lesser extent, Tucson.

[IowaRose]

Thanks for the response. That is what I was thinking from what I have been reading. Good to have it confirmed, I guess, and also somewhat disheartening, because from what I read about Flagstaff and the pictures I've seen, I thought I'd like it there.

I have lived in this small Iowa town for 20 years and haven't seen it get any better. We have a small mall, but it gets fewer and fewer stores all the time. We have been losing some businesses that have been here for over 50 years, so the trend isn't positive. I grew up in the U.P. of Michigan and went through watching my town die as the mines closed and people moved away, so I want to relocate to someplace that is at least not getting worse.

[agorski]

I moved to Prescott from Houston and found it's much cheaper here although that's comparing big city costs to small city costs. The lack of a state income tax in Texas makes for brutal property taxes. Do a search on jobs in the Prescott and Flagstaff forums here and you'll find opinions on the job markets in these towns.