Tennis Communities in Arizona? (Phoenix, Tucson: RV park, apartment, lease)

[EddieTripod]

Hi,

The wife and I live in Wisconsin. We are selling our large house and we are looking to possibly get a condo or apartment up here. Also, we would like to spend approx oct-nov through march-april down south. We have just started looking.

Ideally, we would like to find a "nice" manufactured or mobile home coummunity which is really geared towards lots of tennis activities, not just having some courts in the community. We would also enjoy doing all the other community activities like swimming, dances, sports, etc, but we are really into tennis, so a strong tennis atmosphere would be a real priority.

When I say "nice", I mean not crowded. We don't want to feel like tourists being packed into an RV park. Friendly neighbors who are fun but not too loud, a pretty community where people keep their properties looking nice, etc. We would like a community where there are lots of things to do, but not so crowded that you can't do any of them.

A friend of mine reccomended looking into a gated mobile/manufactured community in the Tucson area. That sounds fine to us, but Phoenix or some other place in that general area would be fine as long as it was nice weather during the winter and not too expensive. I've heard finding something for $50,000 or less is possible. Is that true? We would like to be close to a bigger city like Phoenix or Tucson so we could explore activities in the city also.

I am 42 going on 43. My wife is 54 going on 55. We would probably be able to get into a 55+ area, but would we want to do that? I don't want to be surrounded with just old folks. A 30+ area would suit us better, as we are very active, but if you know of any 55+ areas which are tennis oriented and fun, we wouldn't rule it out.

We are making a trip out to the west probably about oct/nov. We will be touring for about a month and would like to check out different areas and find our dream spot. Any specific suggestions for this type of community would be GREATLY appreciated.

Lastly, how do "snowbirds" like us typically do things with the housing? Can we just lease a furnished place for 6 months? Can we buy a place and are there people who look after the property while we are in WI for the summer? A furnished place would be nice, but not absolutely neccesary.

Thanks in advance,

EddieG