Areas near Phoenix for economical retirement costs?

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Block homes often have no insulation at all except roof. Block is a lousy insulator. Newer homes are much, much better insulated because energy standards are now enforced in the building codes.

The condo rows in Sun City are reasonably cheap to cool, though, as they have common walls, small windows, and low ceilings. Newer homes tend to have huge window areas and higher ceilings which are not energy friendly.

On paper this is true, the issue with block homes, but my experience has been that the stick and chicken wire homes of 2005-2010 were thrown up so quickly that they are not only inadequately insulated, but heavy in gaps, cheap Windows, inefficient AC set ups etc. making for an often higher electricity bill.

If you can find a block home with sunken windows, a porch, a flat white roof or insulated attic, and lower ceilings, hard flooring, you'll have a cheap house to cool and keep cool.

[Dewey59]

Originally Posted by Suzatlarge

I've been looking at listings of Sun City homes (single family and townhouses/condos) on realtor.com, among other research.

It seems that every home in SC of any type pays an annual "main" Sun City HOA fee of just under $500. Then, the condo/townhome/duplex/row house type properties, have a separate HOA with monthly fees. Those will vary from HOA to HOA so you have to check each one specifically.

But AFAIK, single family homes in Sun City only have that annual "main" Sun City HOA fee, as they aren't in any other "subgroup" HOAs.

As noted, the individual HOA fees will cover, generally speaking, external maintenance such as grounds, roofs, paint, and I think garbage pickup. Depending on the HOA it may cover more than that but never assume anything, always get the specific info.

The "main" SC HOA annual fee is what gets you admitted to the recreational facilities.

The above is what I *think* I know. If I'm incorrect, I hope someone will correct me. Thanks!

This is what I seen when I was looking as well. I did run across one house (can't remember if it was SC or SCW) that did have an additional HOA because it was part of some kind of special group, but in the overwhelming majority of cases, single family homes will only have the rec center fee - no HOA.