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Old 02-24-2010, 10:00 PM
 
Location: Angelus Oaks, California
123 posts, read 355,892 times
Reputation: 35

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What can you tell me about Kingman? We live in Southern California and are looking to relocate to AZ.
What's the summer weather like there? Temperature in degrees would be helpful. Humidity?

Winters? Snow? How much?

Nearest large city? My husband is a professional musician and he also gives lessons, so finding a place where he can do that is essential.

We are looking to buy a mobile/manufactured home, and I have seen several possibilities. Are there certain areas, streets to stay away from?

We are not party animals, but we do enjoy taking a movie, bowling, miniature golf, things of that nature. Can those things be found in Kingman?

You may laugh but does it have a Starbuck's and a book store?

What are the people like? I've heard in other threads that AZ is not a very friendly place, coming from Southern California I find that hard to believe. We've got the crankiest people in the nation here. Your opinions on Kingman would be greatly appreciated.

I'm getting a little long winded here, but I just want to know if it's worth the drive to go check it out. It is a ways from down here.
Thx
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Old 02-24-2010, 10:36 PM
 
13,158 posts, read 21,701,412 times
Reputation: 14033
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mountain Sprite View Post
What can you tell me about Kingman?
Howdy, Mountain Sprite, glad you asked.
Quote:
We live in Southern California and are looking to relocate to AZ.
What's the summer weather like there? Temperature in degrees would be helpful. Humidity?

Winters? Snow? How much?
Summer weather is hot and dry, but not nearly as hot as Phoenix. It does get to 100F regularly, and maxes out around 105F for a few days as well. Nights do tend to cool off and become a perfect temperature to entertain outdoors in the evenings. Temps in AZ are largely controlled by elevation. Phoenix is around 1,000' I believe, while Flagstaff is over 7,000. Kingman is right between those at 3500', and so the temps are right between those two cities as well. There's a mountain park just outside of town at 6500' which will be in the 80's typically when it's 100F in town. So it's a great place to cool off. We get a bit of humidity during the late summer monsoons, although nothing at like you'll see in most of the rest of the country. This is our 4th winter here, and we've only had snow in town on one of those winters. That was last year, and we had two storms that dumped a few inches each, which was a big surprise. The other three years we've had nothing, so suffice to say it only snows on rare occasions here. The aforementioned mountains around town do get a lot of snow however.
Quote:

Nearest large city? My husband is a professional musician and he also gives lessons, so finding a place where he can do that is essential.
Nearest large city would be Las Vegas, which is 100 miles away. Your husband could teach in schools in town, or open his own practice. Expect the pickings to be fairly slim here though. You do have the casino town of Laughlin, NV about 40 minutes away, so there could be some entertainment dollars there to be had as well.
Quote:
We are looking to buy a mobile/manufactured home, and I have seen several possibilities. Are there certain areas, streets to stay away from?
Don't buy a place with streets named after birds. Chances are that's in a dumpy little enclave called Birdland, which is reputed to be bad, although one rarely hears of any problems there. There are a few areas where the houses are very old, basically old mining camps, probably passed down from generations. In general, the newer the area, the nicer it is. Although there are some older neighborhoods that are very well maintained and show pride of ownership as well. So it's hard to make blanket statements. Really you need to drive around and look at areas and see what suits you.
Quote:
We are not party animals, but we do enjoy taking a movie, bowling, miniature golf, things of that nature. Can those things be found in Kingman?
Yep, we have all that. Actually not sure about miniature golf, but we do have everything else. There's also Lake Havasu and Bullhead nearby with other activities as well. There's no traffic at all in Mohave County, so the driving is very easy here at all hours.
Quote:
You may laugh but does it have a Starbuck's and a book store?
Yup, and yup.
Quote:
What are the people like? I've heard in other threads that AZ is not a very friendly place, coming from Southern California I find that hard to believe. We've got the crankiest people in the nation here. Your opinions on Kingman would be greatly appreciated.
Well, given that half the people in Kingman are from SoCal, if you don't like them, you've got only yourself to blame. We've made tons of great friends here, more so than any other place we've lived, and that includes Silicon Valley, and Rockland County, NY.
Quote:
I'm getting a little long winded here, but I just want to know if it's worth the drive to go check it out. It is a ways from down here.
Thx
No prob. Except for the possible slim pickings in the music industry here, I do think the town would be well worth checking out for yourselves.

Good luck, and feel free to keep the questions coming!
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Old 02-25-2010, 01:33 AM
 
Location: Angelus Oaks, California
123 posts, read 355,892 times
Reputation: 35
Thanks Kdog,
Sorry about the email thing...I didn't know any better.
I think we will drive up there and check out the place. I found this adorable mobile home that I am dying to see. The price is right and very affordable for us, so much so that we will be able to keep our house here in California, and buy that one for cash. The street it's on is called E Snavely, and the zip is 86409. Sounds like most of the town has that zip code so I don't know if that will help any. It's in the Butler tract. Any thoughts?

I took a Google Map "walk" down the street and it doesn't seem so bad. Maybe one or two "messy" (a kind word for the truth) people there, but most of it seemed okay. Even though there are older singlewide homes the yards are neat and fenced. That means a lot to me. It looks like most of the real estate photos were taken in winter because the trees are all bare, but there are a lot of full grown trees so the street has been there awhile. I bet it's quite lovely when everything is green. A good sign I think. Since all the leaves are off of the trees they must be deciduous...or dead(ha, ha). Do you get a lot of fall color on the trees there? (I hope, I hope, I HOPE!)
I will miss having any snow, but I suppose that's better than shoveling 3 feet of it like I did with this last storm. But no snow AND no fall color...eeehhh I don't know. At least where we live now we have beautiful autumns.

100 degrees is a bit warm for this mountain girl, but I think I can handle that especially since I can go inside and turn on the A/C. My heat threshold maxes out around 80-85. I used to live in Palm Springs, but that was 12 years ago and now I've aclimated to a colder climate.

I did forget to ask...do you have sales tax? How much?


Well, to everyone else that has a comment to leave about Kingman I welcome your two cents. We will be driving down the second week in March.

Keep the info coming

Thanks again Kdog

Last edited by Mountain Sprite; 02-25-2010 at 01:55 AM.. Reason: Add a question
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Old 02-25-2010, 06:11 AM
 
Location: Kingman - Anaconda
1,552 posts, read 6,446,422 times
Reputation: 746
Snavley is over by the college.

It is good you are coming in to take a look first as some places in there can be run down. Lot sizes can be very small also. Looks like it might be close to the place Kdog mentioned with Birdnames
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Old 02-25-2010, 07:00 AM
 
13,158 posts, read 21,701,412 times
Reputation: 14033
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mountain Sprite View Post
Thanks Kdog,
Sorry about the email thing...I didn't know any better.
I think we will drive up there and check out the place. I found this adorable mobile home that I am dying to see. The price is right and very affordable for us, so much so that we will be able to keep our house here in California, and buy that one for cash. The street it's on is called E Snavely, and the zip is 86409. Sounds like most of the town has that zip code so I don't know if that will help any. It's in the Butler tract. Any thoughts?

I took a Google Map "walk" down the street and it doesn't seem so bad. Maybe one or two "messy" (a kind word for the truth) people there, but most of it seemed okay. Even though there are older singlewide homes the yards are neat and fenced. That means a lot to me. It looks like most of the real estate photos were taken in winter because the trees are all bare, but there are a lot of full grown trees so the street has been there awhile. I bet it's quite lovely when everything is green. A good sign I think. Since all the leaves are off of the trees they must be deciduous...or dead(ha, ha). Do you get a lot of fall color on the trees there? (I hope, I hope, I HOPE!)
I will miss having any snow, but I suppose that's better than shoveling 3 feet of it like I did with this last storm. But no snow AND no fall color...eeehhh I don't know. At least where we live now we have beautiful autumns.

100 degrees is a bit warm for this mountain girl, but I think I can handle that especially since I can go inside and turn on the A/C. My heat threshold maxes out around 80-85. I used to live in Palm Springs, but that was 12 years ago and now I've aclimated to a colder climate.

I did forget to ask...do you have sales tax? How much?


Well, to everyone else that has a comment to leave about Kingman I welcome your two cents. We will be driving down the second week in March.

Keep the info coming

Thanks again Kdog
Hey, you're welcome. No worries on the PM thing, you did nothing wrong, but it's a pet peeve of mine. I now always prefer to answer generic questions in the open forum for two reasons: first, you get better information because folks like Rambrush will chime in who has been around the area for far longer than me and knows all the stuff I don't. The second reason is more selfish. I used to write long responses to personal messages only to never hear from the person again. No "thank you", no nothin'. So now I figure if I'm going to write long responses, at least other people will be able to find this info in the future and benefit from it.

Rambrush is right about Butler, it's a variable area. Some areas definitely show pride of ownership, and other areas are just plain junky. If PM me the address, I can snap some pictures of the street and the home and send them to you. See, that's a perfect application for PMs because the info is more private.

Fall colors don't really exist in the desert. Sure, you'll get some on planted deciduous trees for a few days maybe until the wind blows them off. If you're a hiker, you can go up to Mt. Hualapai County Park and walk through Aspen and cottonwood groves which are gorgeous in the fall. But you'll see almost none of that in the city. Make no mistake -- this is the desert. Even though it's high desert, it's still sandy, windy and hot for 8 months of the year. Funny, I think most people acclimate away from the cold as they get old, not towards it.

Sales tax rate is 7.85, which is probably high. On the other hand, our property taxes are probably the lowest in the country. After living in CA and NY, it seems practically free to live here.

BTW, you might like to buy a home right on Mt. Hualapai. There you will get your snow and fall colors, and generally cooler temperatures. It's definitely something to think about. Although, I did meet some folks a few weeks ago that live up there, but hadn't been able to get to their home in a month because they were snowed out of the street (albeit a particularly rough one.)
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Old 02-25-2010, 09:15 AM
 
572 posts, read 2,479,266 times
Reputation: 307
Kdog, nice reply with lots of good information. I even learned a few things from your post. I thought Kingman got more snow though,but I only drive thru now and then.
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Old 02-25-2010, 01:59 PM
 
Location: Angelus Oaks, California
123 posts, read 355,892 times
Reputation: 35
Smile Thanks for the info

Quote:
Rambrush is right about Butler, it's a variable area. Some areas definitely show pride of ownership, and other areas are just plain junky. If PM me the address, I can snap some pictures of the street and the home and send them to you. See, that's a perfect application for PMs because the info is more private.
Hey, I'd love that! Thanks so much for your kind offer. I used Google Map and "walked" down the street, but there's nothing like a good old fashioned photo. I understand about the PM's now That makes more sense.

Quote:
Fall colors don't really exist in the desert. Sure, you'll get some on planted deciduous trees for a few days maybe until the wind blows them off. If you're a hiker, you can go up to Mt. Hualapai County Park and walk through Aspen and cottonwood groves which are gorgeous in the fall. But you'll see almost none of that in the city. Make no mistake -- this is the desert. Even though it's high desert, it's still sandy, windy and hot for 8 months of the year. Funny, I think most people acclimate away from the cold as they get old, not towards it.
Bummer! I have some awesome colors here. I'd really miss that. When is your windy season? Don't mind me (about the cold) I'm part polar bear

Quote:
BTW, you might like to buy a home right on Mt. Hualapai. There you will get your snow and fall colors, and generally cooler temperatures. It's definitely something to think about. Although, I did meet some folks a few weeks ago that live up there, but hadn't been able to get to their home in a month because they were snowed out of the street (albeit a particularly rough one.)
I'd love it if there was only a foot of snow at a time, but any more than that would make the move there superfluous. It's the digging out that kills me not the driving in it. We've got 4x4 Jeeps that plow right over anything. I've still got a 6 foot wide berm in front of my house right now from that storm that hit us 4 weeks ago! No, I don't think that would be a smart move. I might as well stay put.

Is there any place in your state that gets a colorful autumns without a ton of snow? My DH talked to a friend of his. who lives in Flagstaff, and he said that they got slammed by the last storm too, but that the snow was gone in a week. He said he could handle that. I wonder if that's true?
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Old 02-26-2010, 05:47 PM
 
Location: Kingman - Anaconda
1,552 posts, read 6,446,422 times
Reputation: 746
Tonight on the way home I swung over and drove the length of the road. There at least 10 places up for sale some in fairly good shape. The area has some character, you will have to make the decision if that's what you want or not.
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Old 03-19-2010, 07:44 PM
 
9 posts, read 15,489 times
Reputation: 15
Hello. Did you decide to move to Kingman? My family is looking at moving from North California to Kingman also, but are concerned about a lot of what you wrote, including the music scene there as my husband is also a musician. He's a bassist looking for bands to play with. Any info you might have would be helpful to us.
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Old 03-20-2010, 11:29 PM
 
Location: KINGMAN,AZ
1 posts, read 2,786 times
Reputation: 11
I've lived in Kingman almost 4 years and its nice to see people talking about all aspects of it. Too many people get hung up on just one or a very few and it skews the real Kingman. We traveled from Atlanta to Kingman to see our country and stopped at many cities along the way. We were impressed with the friendliness of the people so we stayed to see what else Kingman offered. We found jobs, friends and a way of life (smaller town) that wasn't familiar to us. So here it is year 4 and I still learned some things about Kingman from ya'll. Keep up the Good Work
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