Here's my update since we have been here a while. . . we chose to live in Fort Madison for a number of reasons.
We've been here a month now. Fort Madison is beautiful. The main drag is a bit run down in areas but it is being working on and it does have charm. It is in A LOT better shape than many other cities I've been to - including Burlington. The downtown Burlington area was a bit scary to me - and it was late afternoon. After my first visit to Fort Madison I wasn't sure but when we came back I fell in love with the town. There are a lot of little restaurants and the downtown area still has little mom and pop shops. There is a major grocery store (Hyvee) for the person who said Shopko and Dollar General was it. There is also a Tru Value hardware store. We have driven into Burlington a couple of times for shopping but it is literally 18 minutes from the Wal-mart in West Burlington to my front door and I live on the far end of Fort Madison.
Every weekend there has been some activity to do with our children in the area (corn festival, watermelon festival, fireworks this weekend, rodeo next week). The YMCA has activities for my entire family year round.
The weather has been wonderful (I know this summer wasn't the norm) averaging around 70-75 during the day lately. It is getting cooler at night and doesn't seem humid at all to me. We'll see how we do with winter
People have been wonderful. Neighbors actually wrote notes welcoming us and came over to say "hi" and ask if we needed anything. When you drive around people wave. People are friendly and helpful and go out of their way to be kind. The preschool we put our son in is excellent. The movie theater has movies for kids in the summer. The library has story time for my toddler. All the parks are well maintained and look nice. My children love going to throw rocks in the river and watch the sail boats (wed nights in summer). We could afford much more house here than in AZ. I LOVE our house and our street and even if my husband gets transferred again in the future I have no doubts this house would sell easily. I know that some houses are run down but that is to be expected unless you are in a brand new neighborhood. I've found that most people take care of their homes and yards. There are some beautiful older homes here.
As for the person that says the city is declining . . . I don't see that. There are numerous employers here. I don't know if they are all hiring but I don't get the feeling that there are alot of people out of work. I also don't see many unhappy people walking around. There are lots of young families and many older folks. I think it's a good balance of young and old.
I was worried about the prison at first but it actually doesn't bother me anymore. We live on the other end of town and it is a major employer in the area.
Well - I'll add more if I think of anything later. Thank you all for your advice.
Welcome to City-Data.com forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with 700,000 other registered members. User profiles and some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your free account you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 15,000 posts/day about local topics and you will see fewer ads. 
Update . . .
Linear Mode
