Best small towns (Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff: new home, buying, construction)

[rocketpalmer]

I am interested in finding out about the best small towns in Arizona. My husband and I live in Maryland and are trying to find a place that is small <10,000 people, has a nice Main Street area, has shopping within a 20 mile range. This may sound silly, but is a small town like Star's Hollow from Gilmore Girls. I am not naive and I realize that that is small town romanticized, but I have been to enough small towns to realize that there are some wonderful places out there.
We visited Arizona a couple of years ago and loved it. We were in Jerome, Page, Flagstaff, Grand Canyon (of course), Sedona. We found it to have a gentler pace than the East. Also beautiful and we loved the weather.
If you can give us some suggestions I would really appreciate it!

[sablebaby]

You should post this under the AZ forum and not the Phoenix forum for more help. The mod will probably move it for you though. Good luck!

[rocketpalmer]

Thanks! I'm new to this and need all the help I can get!

[115db]

Hmmm, less than 10,000 people. Im thinking maybe Tombstone or Benson, but not sure of the population.
For me, 10k people is about good, too, anything else is too many. But Im doing 3rd best to what I can, by not living in Phoenix...
Flagstaff is very nice, but its more of a tourist town with around 60,ooo (am I correct?) people. Ive considered many times moving back up there but my line of work isnt stable in the winter time (construction). In fact, its slowing down a bit, out here, too, might consider going back into trucking...

[aj661]

You didn't mention weather...If higher elevations and some snow are okay, you might start a search in Show Low and work out from there. Lots of small towns above the rim: Heber-Overgaard, Eagar, Springerville, Pinetop-Lakeside, etc.

[Great Joy]

rocketpalmer, in addition to normal small towns, you may also want to include Master Planned Communities in/near larger cities in your search. The goal of many MPCs is to be a small town with the whole "live/work/play/shop/dine" concept all within steps from your front door. Good luck in your search!

[LordBalfor]

Since someone mentioned Benson, I'll chip in with what I know.

Benson has a population of under 5,000 but I'm sure there are another 5,000+ in the surrounding area. It does have basic shopping - plus a bit more actually now that the big new Walmart has opened up there. More will be coming as the area grows (which it will). Until the big softening of the housing market, there were some 30,000 new homes scheduled to be built in nearby Whetstone. About half of those will not happen now (one of the big builders pulled out) but 10,000 are still likely to go in sometime over the next few years (exactly when is dependent on long the housing crisis lasts). In any event with that growth will come additional retail (Home Depot is looking into buying some land there, as is one of the big drug store chains). Also, when the Passages of Tucson gets eventually built (assuming it does) in Vail, major shopping (and a good-sized hospital) will be 20 minutes away. So, Benson is still relatively small at the moment but likely to grow (that may or may not be a plus for you) - however, I can't really envision it as anything too large (at least not for a while). Right now for additional shopping you have to go to Tucson (40+ minutes) or Sierra Vista (similar distance - 30,000+ population).

In regards to appearance of the town, Benson is nothing special - rather plain and actually (I think)a bit on the ugly side.

Climate in the area is nice as the elevation is a bit higher than Tucson. Benson is at 3,500 feet (where my land is at J-6 Ranchettes it's 4,200 feet). This means it's not quite as hot as Tucson (and much less than Phoenix) but still pleasant in the winter. Summer highs are typically in the mid-90's or so, winter highs in the low 60's). Because of it's elevation, SE Arizona as a whole is more mild than most folks think.

Ken