Alright folks....tell me about Sierra Vista AZ (Phoenix, Tucson: house, buy)

[wfurm]

I've already done a search and I pulled up two threads. I need some more "personal" information about this town/city.

Some back ground on us...hubby works for a major defense contractor, I own and operate a pet sitting business in...are you ready...Hartselle AL. We've been looking to relocate for some time to a place where we can retire. We are not "from" AL, we both are natives of southern CA. We have been to AZ many times, and we love it, but have never been to Sierra Vista.

The town/city we currently are residing in has a pop of 11k, so small town doesn't bother me.

My son is on a few junior golf tours, and I know that Sierra Vista has two courses. Golfers, what is your take on the courses, and which club do you prefer.

So folks if you'd be so kind...give me the good, the bad, and the ugly of Sierra Vista.


Thanks!

[MaikeerinWA]

I've never lived in SV, but based on many visits, I would say that year-round climate is certainly a "good." Summer highs are much milder than say, Phoenix, where crack-of-dawn tee times are sometimes needed.

I remember reading a few years ago about some sort of childhood leukemia cluster there, but I don't know what the current status of that is.

[ArizonaBear]

Climate wise; Sierra Vista is similar to the San Fernando Valley albeit with slightly cooler winters.

Housing prices there are relatively low and there is a lot of open land.

My one worry is SV's proximity to Mexico...........admittedly, the illegals (trying to) jump the border nearby hightail it out of Cochose County quickly due to lots of Border Patrol activity there.

[wfurm]

Originally Posted by MichaelinWA

I've never lived in SV, but based on many visits, I would say that year-round climate is certainly a "good." Summer highs are much milder than say, Phoenix, where crack-of-dawn tee times are sometimes needed.

I remember reading a few years ago about some sort of childhood leukemia cluster there, but I don't know what the current status of that is.

I read about that. Odd...but no current outbreaks if that's the right term, that I have read about. Thanks for the information though.

[wfurm]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

Climate wise; Sierra Vista is similar to the San Fernando Valley albeit with slightly cooler winters.

Housing prices there are relatively low and there is a lot of open land.

My one worry is SV's proximity to Mexico...........admittedly, the illegals (trying to) jump the border nearby hightail it out of Cochose County quickly due to lots of Border Patrol activity there.

You know...I always wondered about that. Is there like a fence across the boarder? LOL. The house we chose has a six foot brick/cement wall...and I have two dogs, so no problem with Juan jumping on in, I hope.

[LoneStarJerry]

Looking at this thread from the main forum page it just shows Alright folks....tell me about Sierra.

I thought it was asking about SierraAZ from Tucson that is a regular contributor to the forum.

[crazyme4878]

The town is about 40,000, so it isn't really a small town. My fault with it is that I feel like there is a lack of a "community," although you may feel there is more of one if you live in one of the developments. The whole town is strip malls--no "downtown"--so that is my big beef.

The schools seem pretty good, although I have heard good and bad things about the high school. My son is in kindergarten in Hereford, so I'm not much help there. There are a few charter schools, as well, so you do have your pick.

My husband is a member of the Fort's golf club. He likes, although I think it is an easier course. The other one is expensive, well at least expensive for us. Sorry, he's sleeping right now, or else I would ask him for more info.

The "illegal problem" isn't too much of a problem on a day-to-day basis. Mostly, you just notice all the BP trucks and if you drive toward Bisbee, you will see them detaining people. We often get the helicopter buzzing around our house (we are next to range land) at night, which wakes up the baby. But seeing that you don't have a baby, it probably isn't a big deal. There are places where you don't want to go at night (in the mountains) and areas that you might not want to hike alone, but probably still isn't a problem. Although the BP might scare you like they did my husband! He was hiking down an overlook area, keeping his eyes on the trail. All of sudden he looks up and there is BP right in front of him with an automatic rifle! (not aimed, of course) It scared the crap out of him! Anyhow, there are some accidents that happen because of illegals, and probably some stolen cars, although whenever they recover one, it always seems to be from Phoenix (I really don't get that--they make it all the way to Phoenix, then steal a car and come back?). If you live in the country, though, it might be a different scenerio, depending on where you live. I live three doors down from state range land, so they come through there regularly, with a main pick up area on the corner. A couple days ago, there was an unattended, older car parked at the bus stop. A BP on the way to work stopped and investigated. I don't know what happened with it--it did get moved sometime during the day by someone. I had to make up a story on the fly for my son. Thats about the closest to any problems we have had in the last six months.

Not too many exciting locally-owned restuarants in town. There are three grocery stores, a Walmart, a Target, Sears, Dillons, K-Mart, Best Buy, etc., so there are plenty of shopping choices. The Parks and Rec department seems very active--they offer a lot of classes, put on music and movie nights in the park during the summer, and the pool is really great. There is also a teen center and a new skate park. The library seems pretty good, as well. They also have a lot of baseball fields, so I'm imagining they have a good baseball/softball program, but I don't know for sure (also not sure what your son likes to do).

Any road beyond a highway tends to be horrible! If you buy a house out of town, beware! Many of the roads are not maintained, so all you have is a deeply rutted two-track lane.

I don't know, I really don't like SV very much, but I'm afraid to go on because I know I am definitely biased. I like small towns with a good sense of community, cold weather, water and trees--so obviously SV isn't a good fit for me. But I especially want the sense of community, which I'm just not feeling so far.

Let me know any specifics, and I will try to help you out, but remeber my bias and that I have only been here six months!

[ArizonaBear]

To crazyme4878:

The lack of community part I picked up on as well while just visting Sierra Vista for just a few hours, sad to say.

As for your cold weather needs: SV ain't where it's at for you (NO winters by back east/Midwest standards)............I am the opposite, I hate true '4 season' weather so the climate may be a good fit for me

Again; thank you for your candid assessment of the place.

I do need to go there for the day and do some additional recon---------SV is only about 4 hours away from me by car. Suffice to say: I may have to make a sudden decision on my next home in the near future, just a premonition here.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

To crazyme4878:

The lack of community part I picked up on as well while just visting Sierra Vista for just a few hours, sad to say.

As for your cold weather needs: SV ain't where it's at for you (NO winters by back east/Midwest standards)............I am the opposite, I hate true '4 season' weather so the climate may be a good fit for me

Again; thank you for your candid assessment of the place.

I do need to go there for the day and do some additional recon---------SV is only about 4 hours away from me by car. Suffice to say: I may have to make a sudden decision on my next home in the near future, just a premonition here.

I was stationed there many years ago - it's how I came to come to Arizona - so can't say anything about the city. But the weather in the winter is too darned cold. It's kind a tweener thing where it's too warm to snow or have a "real" winter, but the wind and the chill gets to you if you don't like cold weather. Plenty of warm sunshine though that you don't have in the "four-season" climates. Summers are nice by our standards, though, with a lot of "gentle" monsoon storms.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

I was stationed there many years ago - it's how I came to come to Arizona - so can't say anything about the city. But the weather in the winter is too darned cold. It's kind a tweener thing where it's too warm to snow or have a "real" winter, but the wind and the chill gets to you if you don't like cold weather. Plenty of warm sunshine though that you don't have in the "four-season" climates. Summers are nice by our standards, though, with a lot of "gentle" monsoon storms.

Interesting.

The avg. daytime high in SV in January is about 60F with a typical night time low of 35F----unless as you stated---------neither fish nor fowl.

I have noticed that Kingman, Globe, etc. are exactly as you described: not a true '4 season' climate but can definitely be chilly (once saw a high of 36F in Kingman one January) compared to our Low Desert.