St. Louis, Missouri versus Tucson, Arizona (cost of living and weather)? (state, rates)

[Seahawksfan33]

Tucson, Arizona seems to be developing a reputation for being the 'cheapest big city to live in inside the USA' (I've even seen people get surprised by how cheap it is), but rentjungle states that St. Louis is cheaper to live in than Tucson is. I live in St. Louis, and would be surprised if thereare any other big cities that's cheaper than this is. As for weather, I would easily go with Tucson just because of the milder winters.

[lovecrowds]

The city of Tucson is very, very affordable but it has many suburbs that are surprisingly expensive.

Tucson is a very slow growth city. There are lots of 1950s-1960s apartment complexes though that have rents in the $400-$500 range though in the city itself.

Going through the city itself it is amazing how many 40-50 year old apartment complexes there are in the city over such a massive area of the city. Many of these $400-$500 apartments look very no-frills and the exteriors in general look a bit outdated but the areas that they are mainly low-amenity areas with very little retail but are otherwise decent especially by Midwestern rough area standards.

The northern suburbs of Tucson are about twice the cost of the city. The northern suburbs are a totally different world on apartments rents and especially home prices in Tucson itself.

The city of Tucson may have comperable rents to St. Louis, but the housing prices in many Tucson suburbs are much, much higher then St. Louis suburbs.

Tucson has incredibly poverty rates though that are similar to St. Louis. Tucson is also a much, much poorer city then St. Louis.

Tucson for all it's poverty and extreme economic hardship though is not a dirty city and the violent crime rates are relatively low for a city of it's size.
'
South Tucson where the cheapest rents are doesn't seem like one is in a city of over 500,000 people. Many major streets don't have sidewalks, there is lots of open-space and modular-home devolopments.

Tucson has some denser neighborhoods but overall it is totally different from a city like St. Louis. Tucson is huge in land area and it feels much more sparse, quiet and remote then other cities across the nation of similar size.

[C24L]

I prefer Tucson

[sexxxcblac]

Tucson

[Kmanshouse]

Real estate is cheap in Tucson. But everything else was more expensive than I thought when I moved there. Car insurance, car registrations and electric bills are higher than Chicago. Much of our savings from housing were wiped out by some other things like that.