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After living in the San Antonio area since 2013 and Austin in 2012, I have decided to look for greener pastures (I realize the irony). I San Antonio has been ok to me – I graduated from UTSA, I made many friends, and had my first “big boy” job, and other life events have happened here. I didn’t mind SA, even though I always found it a bit dull compared to all the years before living in Philly.
However, in the last year, all of those friends got married and/or moved out of town to places too far to visit, and now it is basically just me here twiddling my thumbs. It is extremely hard to meet people here, any I have not really had any luck since most friends left. I have also come to realize that SA is a very boring town if you aren’t on the Riverwalk or going to Sea World, and the surrounding area is even more dead. The surrounding Hill Country has no redeeming qualities, and is ugly. So far I have really been looking at moving further west to somewhere I have never tried. I know I sound like I’m too good for this place, however I really did enjoy most of my time here, but the time has come to move on.
In looking for a new place, my requirements were:
-A large city (Ideally larger than SA)
-A somewhat young population. I know people make it sound like it’s a retirement home out in Phoenix but I assume that’s a massive hyperbole?
-Strong job market
-Affordable housing, groceries, utilities. For reference, I pay $900/mo for a fairly modern 650 sq. ft. apartment and another $120 or so for just an internet package and my other utilities. (I don’t run AC if possible, even when it is hot)
-A place where I could see my sports teams play and go to games fairly regularly
-A place where I don’t have to deal with freezing temperatures very often
Phoenix fit the bill it seemed. I have continued to research, but I always love input from people who actually live in these places. It is what makes sites like this so great.
About me:
-I am 27 year old young professional earning ~$50k, but I make about 5k less than what most make at my position, and I think I could find it something more fulfilling of a job (both fiscally and professionally) somewhere else.
-I have a bachelors and I am looking to go back to school potentially and get a masters. ASU’s Carey business school would be the obvious choice for me, and is a school I have looked heavily into…it helps that they are my unofficial 2nd favorite team in all sports.
-Reasonably active and like to go hiking with friends or alone. Really anything to be out of the house in the late afternoons/early evenings.
-I do enjoy a decent bar scene on occasion. However, I am not looking for anything close to 6th street, nor am I expecting it as any sort of requirement.
-Sports fan. SA is nice when I want to see the Grizz or Pistons, but the idea of being able to see all of my teams fairly often would be great.
-I rarely, if ever have a chance to go to the beach, but the idea of having it within reasonable distance is always alluring, even if it involves crossing the border.
Some questions I have:
-Of course it depends on location, but what would $900 or so per month for an apartment get me in somewhat nicer locales in the city? I am not looking to live in some nice neighborhood or some luxurious apartment, but something reasonable at least.
-What are the ‘nicer’ areas to live in? If I could get a few names of towns/neighborhoods so I could check out those areas on google maps and apartment finder, that would be great!
-Mandatory weather question…it is usually mid-high 90s and sticky during the summers here…how well would I take the increase in temps there? Is it that much worse?
-Has anyone been/lived in both SA and Phoenix? If so what would you say are the biggest differences and similarities?
-Perhaps most importantly, would you do this move/life change?
Thanks in advance for any responses I get…this is something I am looking at doing pretty hard, and in the early planning stages of potentially doing this in late January when my lease expires. I will gladly answer any questions you may have in regards to helping me with this.
$900 a month would likely be the rent a 1970s/1980s apartment in Tempe, Southwest Mesa (10 minutes from the University) or North-West Chandler.
Seems like the newer apartment usually begin at $1000 in the east valley.
I doubt Phoenix is less expensive for a similar apartment than San Antonio.
Utilities usually are not included and would be an additional $100-$200 monthly.
Phoenix is certainly not inexpensive. It was very inexpensive until about 2 years ago but the population growth has increased the rents.
Chandler is very nice. Northwest Mesa near the Tempe border is decent. Tempe is decent also.
It is late-October here in Phoenix and it is still in the upper 90s. The average summer high peaks at 106 in Phoenix. But there are days in the summer that is very humid with high temperatures in the 90s but there are days when the humidity is very low but it will be in the mid and upper 110s.
Low temperatures are usually in the mid 80s but during heat-waves the low temperatures might only dip into the mid 90s. Areas not in the heat island in the east Valley are much cooler at night then Tempe.
$900 a month would likely be the rent a 1970s/1980s apartment in Tempe, Southwest Mesa (10 minutes from the University) or North-West Chandler.
Seems like the newer apartment usually begin at $1000 in the east valley.
I doubt Phoenix is less expensive for a similar apartment than San Antonio.
Utilities usually are not included and would be an additional $100-$200 monthly.
Phoenix is certainly not inexpensive. It was very inexpensive until about 2 years ago but the population growth has increased the rents.
Chandler is very nice. Northwest Mesa near the Tempe border is decent. Tempe is decent also.
It is late-October here in Phoenix and it is still in the upper 90s. The average summer high peaks at 106 in Phoenix. But there are days in the summer that is very humid with high temperatures in the 90s but there are days when the humidity is very low but it will be in the mid and upper 110s.
Low temperatures are usually in the mid 80s but during heat-waves the low temperatures might only dip into the mid 90s. Areas not in the heat island in the east Valley are much cooler at night then Tempe.
I missed where he said he wanted to live in the East Valley.
Proposing locations is more or less pointless until one knows where the job is. If you move here without a job you should consider some sort of temporary housing. The Phoenix area is way too spread out to assume that a commute is going to be tolerable without knowing where you will work.
I grew up in Philly and lived in the Phoenix area for the last five years. We recently moved to the Dallas area this summer. Phoenix is a great place to live and like someone else said the valley has gotten more expensive unfortunately, but compared to other parts of the country it is still a good deal. There are great places to eat, live and the scenery is breathtaking the mountains, Palo Verde trees ( I love these) and Saguaro. The night life is there I am married but I had some single friends its not like Phillies night life but its workable. Plenty of sports, Excellent weather when the sun is not baking in the summer months, employment and other singles. If you are going you had better get in fast and get comfy before the prices get to crazy and I have lived on the East and West Valley they both have appeal I enjoyed them both.
After living in the San Antonio area since 2013 and Austin in 2012, I have decided to look for greener pastures (I realize the irony). I San Antonio has been ok to me – I graduated from UTSA, I made many friends, and had my first “big boy” job, and other life events have happened here. I didn’t mind SA, even though I always found it a bit dull compared to all the years before living in Philly.
However, in the last year, all of those friends got married and/or moved out of town to places too far to visit, and now it is basically just me here twiddling my thumbs. It is extremely hard to meet people here, any I have not really had any luck since most friends left. I have also come to realize that SA is a very boring town if you aren’t on the Riverwalk or going to Sea World, and the surrounding area is even more dead. The surrounding Hill Country has no redeeming qualities, and is ugly. So far I have really been looking at moving further west to somewhere I have never tried. I know I sound like I’m too good for this place, however I really did enjoy most of my time here, but the time has come to move on.
In looking for a new place, my requirements were:
-A large city (Ideally larger than SA)
-A somewhat young population. I know people make it sound like it’s a retirement home out in Phoenix but I assume that’s a massive hyperbole?
-Strong job market
-Affordable housing, groceries, utilities. For reference, I pay $900/mo for a fairly modern 650 sq. ft. apartment and another $120 or so for just an internet package and my other utilities. (I don’t run AC if possible, even when it is hot)
-A place where I could see my sports teams play and go to games fairly regularly
-A place where I don’t have to deal with freezing temperatures very often
Phoenix fit the bill it seemed. I have continued to research, but I always love input from people who actually live in these places. It is what makes sites like this so great.
About me:
-I am 27 year old young professional earning ~$50k, but I make about 5k less than what most make at my position, and I think I could find it something more fulfilling of a job (both fiscally and professionally) somewhere else.
-I have a bachelors and I am looking to go back to school potentially and get a masters. ASU’s Carey business school would be the obvious choice for me, and is a school I have looked heavily into…it helps that they are my unofficial 2nd favorite team in all sports.
-Reasonably active and like to go hiking with friends or alone. Really anything to be out of the house in the late afternoons/early evenings.
-I do enjoy a decent bar scene on occasion. However, I am not looking for anything close to 6th street, nor am I expecting it as any sort of requirement.
-Sports fan. SA is nice when I want to see the Grizz or Pistons, but the idea of being able to see all of my teams fairly often would be great.
-I rarely, if ever have a chance to go to the beach, but the idea of having it within reasonable distance is always alluring, even if it involves crossing the border.
Some questions I have:
-Of course it depends on location, but what would $900 or so per month for an apartment get me in somewhat nicer locales in the city? I am not looking to live in some nice neighborhood or some luxurious apartment, but something reasonable at least.
-What are the ‘nicer’ areas to live in? If I could get a few names of towns/neighborhoods so I could check out those areas on google maps and apartment finder, that would be great!
-Mandatory weather question…it is usually mid-high 90s and sticky during the summers here…how well would I take the increase in temps there? Is it that much worse?
-Has anyone been/lived in both SA and Phoenix? If so what would you say are the biggest differences and similarities?
-Perhaps most importantly, would you do this move/life change?
Thanks in advance for any responses I get…this is something I am looking at doing pretty hard, and in the early planning stages of potentially doing this in late January when my lease expires. I will gladly answer any questions you may have in regards to helping me with this.
1. Phoenix is larger, so that's a good start
2. There are large swaths of the city that are solely retirement communities of 55+. Though in the case of the majority, they aren't back to back, so it provides a healthy diversity of young, middle-aged, and old people. This changes significantly when looking at north Peoria or Surprise, because of the Sun Cities.... where it's practically solely old people. The general rule of thumb is that you will see less retirement communities the closer you are in to town, which makes sense, given that retirement communities are a new phenomenon.
3. This really depends on your field. Phoenix is best known for financial (banks) and IT (data analysis?) from what I know. We have a good share of healthcare corporate jobs (not just clinical) also here. Arizona as a whole has few counties, but those counties are very large. Our population is concentrated mostly in 3 counties (Maricopa which is Phoenix, Pima which is Tucson, and Pinal which is between those two) and since the capitol is also in Phoenix, Phoenix has the vast majority of public sector work also for the state.
4. As someone who just applied for an apartment this morning, it seems market rate for 2 bedrooms are about 1100/month in middle class areas (rule of thumb a two bedroom at less than 1k is probably run down and not safe), with the one bedrooms in those same complexes being around the 800-900 range. Studios here are always below 500 square feet as far as anecdotes go and those can run in the 700 range. As far as internet goes, as long as its not Centurylink, it should be decent service. The big two here are Centurylink and Cox, with Centurylink being terrible for anyone who needs high speeds. My internet plan is cheaper than that with Cox but you may have different needs. In regards to utilities, first of all, you will be running A/C here more I feel like. Depending on if your apartment is top floor or not. AZ summers aren't TX summers. Water bills are cheap here, but electric bills run very high in the summer and it's not always the A/C. In apartments I've seen electric bills go as high as $150 in a summer month. Homes can easily get up to $400 a month depending on square footage and again, it's orientation (west-facing or not). Also depends on if you get APS or SRP.
5. Easy.
6. Phoenix always gets to near freezing, but never seems to go under except for very rare scenarios when most people are sleeping. We do deal with the occasional frost, and what that does to our plants, but that's generally once a year.
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Ultimately apartment location depends on your work. I pretty much do WFH and drive around, except right now I'm in a training period that involves driving into Downtown. If it were up to me, I would live in the Tempe area because I'm an early-20s and single individual. But my roommate works in north Phoenix, so we settled on the Moon Valley area (7th Street and Greenway). $900 gets you into something nice up there, even the new luxury developments. Multiple freeway access there is nice too.
West Valley (west of I-17) will always have the best deal on apartments, general rule of thumb for west valley is arguably to not go south of Peoria Road until you get to Westgate (Cardinals stadium) and then west of there you can just stay north of the I-10 and it will stay nice. So like a staircase of sorts. Downside to West Valley is you have to drive for more amenities, though its a better bang for the buck on the units.
For West side of town, I would look into Arrowhead (~75th Avenue and Bell Road) and Westgate (91st Avenue and Glendale) in particular for a single individual. West Valley's best bar is out by Westgate so I would lean towards that more.
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In regards to summer temperatures, a hot sticky day at 90s and high 90 humidity is very comparable to heat index as we get here in Phoenix for our 118/9% humidity days. Both are easily mitigated by shade. Phoenix is also much more mitigated by getting a personal little fan to carry around they sell at the drug store. Buy one of those, especially one that has a spray bottle attached.
Last edited by Prickly Pear; 11-02-2017 at 02:42 PM..
Reason: added after break
While I love Phoenix, I still think Dallas is a better spot for 20-30 something singles. OTOH, Dallas is also ridiculously expensive now (for renters).
While I love Phoenix, I still think Dallas is a better spot for 20-30 something singles. OTOH, Dallas is also ridiculously expensive now (for renters).
OP...I am considering going for a Master's from ASU for a few reasons. I always wonder if living in AZ with a degree from ASU would help out with finding a good job in the area.
South and Central Scottsdale / Tempe are great for 20-30 something singles, Next Downtown Phx and Maybe Near downtown Gilbert (actually REALLY impressed last time I was down there). I wouldn't really look anywhere else if you are looking for a real night life. I'm in my Mid-Thirties and have had lots of fun in Old town scottsdale, really great night life. There are a tons of attractive girls here and I was never bored when I was single. I totally get where you are in your life, it will go by fast so you should live it up and focus on those locations.
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