Best place to live away from phx area? (Phoenix, Tucson: low crime, job market)

[Nicole623az]

My family and I are thinking of relocating in the next year or so. We live in Buckeye and want to get away from this area and away from the whole Phx area. We were thinking about Payson but I read that the job market is bad unless you already have a job waiting for you and that it's a "passing through" city. So where are the best places to live? We want to live somewhere in az where the temps are cooler & you actually have a winter and have snow, that isn't too secluded. Where there's places to shop, with good schools, and things to do for families. We went to Overgaard/Heber and it's pretty there, just too secluded.

[Nicole623az]

What about the White Mountains or rim area? Any good places there?

[MaimounaKande]

How about Flagstaff? That's got everything you have mentioned. It's more expensive than some other parts of AZ, so depends on your budget but it's a great, reasonably sized, town with seasons, snow, and a real town.

[kawgpz550]

Check out St. Johns, Springerville, Show Low....Very nice places! Reasonable cost of living for the most part as well.

[utsava]

Phoenix has gotten terrible....
Northern Arizona is beautiful, probably one of the most beautiful places on this planet. I'm talking about Flagstaff area and White Mountain area, Payson...gorgeour!!!!!
Fresh air....great climate, some winters and sommers ok.

But workwise....
I cannot recommend Payson, there seems to be nothing going on.
Flagstaff has probably the most choices, but property values have gone up.
Workwise Cottonwood and Sedona got much better (pay is much better than in Flagstaff), but you don't want to live in Cottonwood, it can be hell.
People are often redneck, some alternative, but sommers are hot....too dry.
I don't recommend it. Sedona got very touristy and commercial. I don't recommend it eather. Very boring. So are those little towns like Payson or those places in the White mountains. You will have beautiful scenery in the white mountains, more vegetation than in sedona and cooler climate, which is better, but it is boring and quite.

A lot of people move to Prescott, which is an ok place or Flagstaff, if you want to have a regular job.

I personally would also look into Casa Grande or Tuscon, if you like the desert, which are more south. I love Tuscon. People are great there, probably you will meet the best and nicest people in Tuscon. There you know you are in the desert, in Northern Arizona it is more beautiful.

I cannot wait to leave Arizona, it is just too dry here....

[cloud dweller]

Eliminate the confusion and move to Pittsburgh,Penna.50 sunny days a year,dirty snow,cheap housing,very low crime,even criminals left town,great hospitals,great sports,population dropping like a rock,very safe streets,crooked government,great place to raise a family.
Just be glad that you live in Arizona.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Nicole623az

My family and I are thinking of relocating in the next year or so. We live in Buckeye and want to get away from this area and away from the whole Phx area. We were thinking about Payson but I read that the job market is bad unless you already have a job waiting for you and that it's a "passing through" city. So where are the best places to live? We want to live somewhere in az where the temps are cooler & you actually have a winter and have snow, that isn't too secluded. Where there's places to shop, with good schools, and things to do for families. We went to Overgaard/Heber and it's pretty there, just too secluded.

I, too, would like to leave. My working days are done and I no longer need the city for a job and that is the only reason I can see for living in any city. But I think you will find, as I did, that there are very slim pickins in the rest of this state. Flagstaff is overpriced and frigid. Prescott is just the next AZ metropolis with all the growth issues that make Phoenix unpleasant. Sedona is, as stated, way too commercial and trendy.

If you can stand the isolation, Sierra Vista and surrounding areas are OK, as is Page. Globe is a dump but it is close to Phoenix and a matter of time before the retiring boomers transform it. Same with the other mining towns around there like Mammoth. No snow in any of these though. Just dry cold.

Of course, there are few jobs anywhere outside Phoenix (and Tucson to a lesser extent) in this state except service jobs or the occasional thing that pops up and pays poorly. So if you have to work, I guess you just tough it out and be glad you live in an area where many more jobs are created than lost. For many places in the country, it is the other way around.