Transplants , why did you leave AZ if you aren't still here? (Phoenix: condo, house)

[popwar]

If you have left and came back, or stayed gone, what was your reason? Did you realize it was better here than where you were previously? Was it just too hot in the valley? Lack of job offers? Where did you end up moving to instead and why?

[grmi66]

I've moved to Arizona four times, try to leave and keep coming back. Personally I prefer a slightly cooler desert climate than Tucson or Phoenix and tried to make a go of it in Idaho and New Mexico over the past 30 years. But end up coming back for job related or family related reasons.

Finally at age 50 I figured out that Arizona will always be home and I can just travel to spots I like and come back to where my home base is. Moved back to Tucson last year and found it more tolerable than Phoenix. Plus I can be in the high desert to trail run or hike in under an hour.

[popwar]

Originally Posted by grmi66

I've moved to Arizona four times, try to leave and keep coming back. Personally I prefer a slightly cooler desert climate than Tucson or Phoenix and tried to make a go of it in Idaho and New Mexico over the past 30 years. But end up coming back for job related or family related reasons.

Finally at age 50 I figured out that Arizona will always be home and I can just travel to spots I like and come back to where my home base is. Moved back to Tucson last year and found it more tolerable than Phoenix. Plus I can be in the high desert to trail run or hike in under an hour.

Which high desert areas would you recommend? I have only been to Tucson once, and the Catalina area is the only area that appealed to me.

[grmi66]

Originally Posted by popwar

Which high desert areas would you recommend? I have only been to Tucson once, and the Catalina area is the only area that appealed to me.

Right around Tucson I like running and hiking in the Santa Rita's (Madera Canyon), love the canyons in the Catalina's (Pima, Romero, Ventana, Sabino, Bear) and the Oracle area.

For a three hour drive I like the area around Silver City, NM. Makes for a fun weekend getaway.

[Farmer Larry]

Air pollution in the Phoenix area is much worse than it used to be and it will affect your health. We are having high ozone days more than half the summer and I am starting to feel it. I have no doubt it will keep getting worse with more and more people moving here. I am making plans to get out of here ASAP.

[grmi66]

Originally Posted by Farmer Larry

Air pollution in the Phoenix area is much worse than it used to be and it will affect your health. We are having high ozone days more than half the summer and I am starting to feel it. I have no doubt it will keep getting worse with more and more people moving here. I am making plans to get out of here ASAP.

Moved down to Tucson from Phoenix and the days I could exercise outdoors increased exponentially. Especially in the summer. Only thing that is worse than Phoenix for allergies down here are the palo verde trees. I look out the window of my house and the sides of the hills and mountains around here look totally yellow for three weeks.

[Dangerous Dave]

I was stationed in Yuma and spent ten years there, trying to get out pretty much the second half of that ten years.... for obvious reasons. Yuma is super hot, dirty, and didn't have much to offer to people under 65 when I was there in the 1990's. Depending on who you ask, that may still hold true today.

I won't be retiring for at least another fifteen years, but we're looking to get back to Arizona if I can find a job there. I don't want to go back to Yuma, and the wife doesn't like PHX so we've been looking around Tucson, Sierra Vista, and Prescott, leaning heavily towards SV. We've also taken Las Cruces, NM into consideration. We'd like to be somewhere in the high(er) desert with a mild climate and lots of outdoor activities. Before we had kids, I was an avid Jeeper and it's something I'd like to get back into.

[DrDog]

After 10 years we just simply got tired out the heat. Came back once for business trip in July....yeah, it’s hot.

[RJ312]

Left Phoenix due to the underwhelming job opportunities in the area. For a city of its size, the quality of job options isn't good. Not high quality large corporate HQs in the area. Chose to move to Dallas because of the number of Fortune 500 HQs in the area, making for better quality jobs in the region.

[Hal Roach]

Terrible bus service, hard to utilize a college degree, Obamacare, two months of deadly heat, and average weight for females over age 25 is 165 pounds. Things just got turned inside out after the GFC..still not back to normal in most of the world. I bought my third home in Thailand last year. No property taxes, low condo fee, friendly people. The lady, who took my 25 cents for the bus ride, yesterday, was better looking than any lady I have ever seen on Central Ave..