Moving to Prescott? (Phoenix, Tempe, Prescott Valley: houses, construction jobs, transfer)

[StormiNites]

Hey guys,

I've got a couple of questions.. I'll put a little bit of information on me here. I've done tons and tons of research. My boyfriend and I are about to move to the Prescott area this June. I will be attending Embry Riddle and transferring out with my current job. His job, on the other hand, will not transfer him. We currently live in southside Oklahoma City. Those from around here know that the midpart of South OKC hosts a vast amount of illegals. (from around se 15 through to se 59) My father worked at Dayton Tire. He was layed off when they took his job down to Mexico. My best friend is illegal. So I've had experience from both sides of the arguement. I've played soccer since I was young.

A few of my questions are:
-Prescott seems to be a white dominated area.. Is this true? (That would be such a change from here. Probably something hard to adapt too.)
-I've read the immigration law that just recently passed within AZ. How has this affected the Prescott/PV area?
-For my boyfriend, what kind of jobs are there? He's looking for places such as warehouses, construction, trade jobs..
-Area there local sport leagues (preferably indoor soccer for me and baseball for him) for adults? I've found a few websites on their children's sports, nothing on adults.


I understand that the area hosts quite a lot of retirees. (Everyone jokes saying "What? The ones that couldn't make it out to California/just to lazy to drive that far?") Are they rediculously hard to get along with? Here in Oklahoma our cost of living and housing costs are a lot lower. However, the ones with money are of two types: They are either stuck up and stengy, or actually help out and are extremely caring.


I actually have a lot of other questions but none come to my m ind at the moment.

[mon_cheree]

Prescott has a large population of mexicans. If he is illegal, his best bet would be construction..However... the market has really slowed down and that may be difficult for him to obtain. The new law is more astringent in the restaraunts.. from what I have witnessed.

[StormiNites]

Originally Posted by mon_cheree

Prescott has a large population of mexicans. If he is illegal, his best bet would be construction..However... the market has really slowed down and that may be difficult for him to obtain. The new law is more astringent in the restaraunts.. from what I have witnessed.

No, no, no. He is not illegal. He's just not much of a people person. He's always worked in warehouses and so forth..

[Gretchen B]

StormiNites - since I'm a realtor I can't comment on the demographics in the Prescott area, but maybe I can help answer some of your other questions.

With the housing slowdown construction jobs are not as plentiful here as they were a year or so ago. Commericial construction, though, is going full speed now. And some of the specialty trades are still hiring. Try checking out the jobs in the Daily Courier (our newspaper) online on Sundays. Here's the link: The Daily Courier - Yavapai County news and community information

We have quite a few spectator sports (minor league hockey, pro indoor league football, etc) As far as adult sports I'm guessing it's mostly softball and baseball.

Have you visited Prescott yet? Quite a bit smaller than OKC. Prescott is about 35,000, but we usually include Prescott Valley and Chino Valley so that puts our population at about 80,000 for the "tri-city" area. Weather-wise we'll probably be about like OKC as far as temps (although I don't think we get as hot in the summer), but with a lot less humidity, so winter temps don't feel quite as cold or summer temps quite as hot as in OK.

Welcome to the area! I hope your upcoming move goes smoothly!

[BriansPerspective]

Hi There,

We live in the Prescott area. My wife used to play soccer in Maryland (both indoor and outdoor). She has been searching high and low for a women's soccer league for two years now with no result. There is only one adult female soccer league that I am aware of - in Prescott Valley. My wife joined briefly, but left when she found that she was unable to communicate with her teammates. My wife does not speak Spanish, and league was roughly 100% Spanish speaking. A few of the women spoke english and were certainly friendly, but in play, they only spoke Spanish. The coach knew almost no English and a teammate had to translate. Given that my wife is not Spanish-speaking, she did not have much enjoyment on the field. A big part of soccer for her is the camaraderie, which was absent due to the language barrier. There is a strong women's soccer league in Tempe, Phoenix, but the fields are about 1 1/2 hour drive from Prescott.

Recently, my wife found an adult women's volleyball league in Prescott Valley. She played her first game on Wednesday and absolutely loves it. There are also leagues that play in Prescott.

[thedfly]

Good luck on the construction jobs....my husband is a Superintendent/Proj Mgr and was laid off in October with one of the larger builders as were the rest of his fellow employees. He is still looking for work.

Many of the tradespeople he worked with are moving out of state to find work, some are commuting to Phoenix for work. Lots of construction companies have gone bust, others are really struggling with the housing production slowdown. I have seen a couple framing and concrete positions of late, but I agree with Gretchen, commercial construction is going strong.

[bobinverted]

The economy in Prescott is hurting a little bit, but the area is still growing. If your BF is presentable and qualified he should be able to score a job. If you saw the types of people who were applying for jobs in the Prescott area you'd understand the real reason why they think that jobs are so hard to come by. I had four job offers at once when I was looking for a job.

[thedfly]

Originally Posted by bobinverted

The economy in Prescott is hurting a little bit, but the area is still growing. If your BF is presentable and qualified he should be able to score a job. If you saw the types of people who were applying for jobs in the Prescott area you'd understand the real reason why they think that jobs are so hard to come by. I had four job offers at once when I was looking for a job.

I don't know what field you are in but I'm guessing that you were job hunting when the economy here was stronger?

If you're interested in looking for jobs, check the newspaper.The Daily Courier - Classifieds

[StormiNites]

Originally Posted by BiggsHomes

Hi There,

We live in the Prescott area. My wife used to play soccer in Maryland (both indoor and outdoor). She has been searching high and low for a women's soccer league for two years now with no result. There is only one adult female soccer league that I am aware of - in Prescott Valley. My wife joined briefly, but left when she found that she was unable to communicate with her teammates. My wife does not speak Spanish, and league was roughly 100% Spanish speaking. A few of the women spoke english and were certainly friendly, but in play, they only spoke Spanish. The coach knew almost no English and a teammate had to translate. Given that my wife is not Spanish-speaking, she did not have much enjoyment on the field. A big part of soccer for her is the camaraderie, which was absent due to the language barrier. There is a strong women's soccer league in Tempe, Phoenix, but the fields are about 1 1/2 hour drive from Prescott.

Recently, my wife found an adult women's volleyball league in Prescott Valley. She played her first game on Wednesday and absolutely loves it. There are also leagues that play in Prescott.

I was kind of afraid of that. We have that exact problem here in Oklahoma as well. However, I was fortunate enough (I guess you could say) to know a little bit of Spanish. We still have some of our other leagues that do not have that issue, those arethe leagues I've preferred to play with.

How well do you think an indoor soccer areana would carry out there? Would there be enough participation if someone were to begin their own? We have a few out here and they actually cater to all ages, U5 and through to over 35.

[StormiNites]

Originally Posted by Gretchen B

StormiNites - since I'm a realtor I can't comment on the demographics in the Prescott area, but maybe I can help answer some of your other questions.

With the housing slowdown construction jobs are not as plentiful here as they were a year or so ago. Commericial construction, though, is going full speed now. And some of the specialty trades are still hiring. Try checking out the jobs in the Daily Courier (our newspaper) online on Sundays. Here's the link: The Daily Courier - Yavapai County news and community information

We have quite a few spectator sports (minor league hockey, pro indoor league football, etc) As far as adult sports I'm guessing it's mostly softball and baseball.

Have you visited Prescott yet? Quite a bit smaller than OKC. Prescott is about 35,000, but we usually include Prescott Valley and Chino Valley so that puts our population at about 80,000 for the "tri-city" area. Weather-wise we'll probably be about like OKC as far as temps (although I don't think we get as hot in the summer), but with a lot less humidity, so winter temps don't feel quite as cold or summer temps quite as hot as in OK.

Welcome to the area! I hope your upcoming move goes smoothly!

Thank you for the links. Those have come in handy. : )

I will actually be heading out to Prescott in April for about a week. We'll be moving out there in June. I've actually decided to look towards Prescott AND PV.. It seems PV is a little more... Younger I guess you could say.

The weather will be no problem with me. I'll definately not miss the rediculous humid heat here. : )