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Old 01-03-2015, 12:31 PM
 
11 posts, read 31,861 times
Reputation: 19

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimrob1 View Post
I took a 6 month lease when I moved here in August. The rent seemed very reasonable, dispite all the other fees I must pay water, sewer trash $40 a month for my little apt. The lease expires the end of next month. If I decided not to renew I had to give a 2 month notice. I gave my notice last month, that I would not renew. The rent increase was outrageous. Unless I agreed to a 12 month lease my rent, would go up $128 a month for a bare bones studio apt. Even with a 12 month renewal it went up $45 a month. I would never sign a 12 month lease in a city that is new to me. I feel big rent increases are very common in this town. I don't feel it is a place that cares if one comes or goes, that someone else will show up to rent the property. That to me is unwelcoming and unappealing. It turned me off so much since I was new in Tucson, that I have had to make other plans in life.

So my point is. Tucson might look like a low cost of living location, especially for those of us from very high COL locations. Please don't let the low COL reputation Tucson has fool you. A lot depends on your situation in life. Buying here I think is still a good bet, renting here is not something I would recommend. I don't know if its because Tucson has a large student population. I don't know if its just a greedy, transient big town that feels it can get away with it. I do know Tucson doesn't have the income levels, or employers that pay enough to warrant charging such high rents here. I just know to be very careful renting here, many areas are not a place you should go for a lower rent. Even then you don't know how long the rent will stay low.


So plan carefully and make real sure you know what your getting into. Still then even with caution, it can be very difficult when moving to a new location.
Agreed. During my 4 years there I only did a full year at the first place. After that it was 6 months at a time. The 2 complexes and 1 six-plex I lived at were adequate, but nothing at all fancy. The second one (the last 3 years I was there) tried to raise my rent as much as $40 each renewal. I talked them down to $10. Still ended up being a lot for 317 sf. I looked at homes there, but I couldn't bring myself to buy in Tucson. Didn't want to feel that tied to the place.

Tucson is a very transient city for many reasons. The crazy rent increases at many places, the general harshness of the climate (it is a desert after all), people tend to interact as little as possible unless there is a specific purpose (like checking out at the store) due to the huge number of panhandlers. No eye contact means fewer approaches. Having said that there are some really nice, helpful people there, but you have to be careful. There are many who take advantage of newbies. The 6-plex I stayed at had a 50ish brother-sister duo there who harassed anyone who moved in who didn't have a cat and even more so if the person had a dog like I did. Everyone in the plex and the general neighborhood knew of these two as they had lived there for 8 years. They tried to sue me for injuries sustained to their cat prior to my move in date! The prosecutor actually took the case, I had to get an attorney just to have it thrown out. The management company allowed me to break my lease after 7 weeks without extra costs. There are people like that there. Just be careful.

Although I left last April thinking I'd never return, I am returning in a week with a 6 month lease. I made the best friends I've ever had there as well as the support for Aspergers. The dry air can reek havoc with sinuses, eyes, skin, but running a humidifier every night helps a lot.
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Old 01-04-2015, 09:33 AM
 
Location: Vail, AZ
42 posts, read 130,680 times
Reputation: 51
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimrob1 View Post
Buying here I think is still a good bet, renting here is not something I would recommend. I don't know if its because Tucson has a large student population. I don't know if its just a greedy, transient big town that feels it can get away with it. I do know Tucson doesn't have the income levels, or employers that pay enough to warrant charging such high rents here.
Speaking of income levels and employers -- my wife and I moved to Tucson for family reasons (her elderly dad lives here), and in many ways we find it an extraordinarily beautiful place to live. I'm retired from one career but still have to work full time as there's really no way to comfortably make ends meet on one pension. As a cyber security professional with over 30 years of experience, Tucson offers pretty much dead flat zero in my field and the few semi-related jobs that do pop up (U of A, Raytheon) offer absurdly low salaries. Ft. Huachuca used to be slightly better but budget cuts have all but killed many opportunities out there. Therefore, I've had to find work out of town and travel. Literally -- between my one pension and my current full time job, not one cent of what we spend is earned in Tucson. It all comes from out of state. I'd rather it not be that way. The second concern is how the city/county runs its business. They seem to do nothing to even try to attract real job-generating businesses. Tucson does NOT have to become another Phoenix to find progress. The result of this behavior is a giant sucking tax-and-spend machine that will one day run out of other people's money.

Yes, Tucson is a cheaper place to live compared to many other places in the country, but that's not necessarily a good thing unless you're a gazillionaire that doesn't care. My family and I get along ok here, but at what cost to others? Tucson seems to have a significant population of people who are living on the edge -- where that low-priced $1.99 gallon is pretty expensive.

Tucson can do better. Why won't the city and county leadership actually do something to encourage economic progress rather than just keep raising taxes and funding roadside art?
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Old 01-04-2015, 04:21 PM
 
Location: Concord, CA
7,125 posts, read 9,199,181 times
Reputation: 25337
Quote:
Originally Posted by VA-to-AZ View Post
Yes, Tucson is a cheaper place to live compared to many other places in the country, but that's not necessarily a good thing unless you're a gazillionaire that doesn't care. My family and I get along ok here, but at what cost to others? Tucson seems to have a significant population of people who are living on the edge -- where that low-priced $1.99 gallon is pretty expensive.

Tucson can do better. Why won't the city and county leadership actually do something to encourage economic progress rather than just keep raising taxes and funding roadside art?
I wonder if Tucson is similar to Ft Collins, Co in that many graduating students want to stay there and are therefore willing to accept lower wages to do that.

As for the political leadership doing anything to bring in higher paying jobs, I really doubt they can do much. I think the best bet is for the U of A to teach entrepreneurship and to align local teams with good ideas with private investors. Does anything like that exist now?
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Old 02-03-2015, 02:57 PM
 
11 posts, read 31,861 times
Reputation: 19
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vision67 View Post
I wonder if Tucson is similar to Ft Collins, Co in that many graduating students want to stay there and are therefore willing to accept lower wages to do that.
I can't say for sure, but it is a distinct possibility. When I first moved here I was fortunate enough to befriend a number of relatively recent U of A graduates who were now all working full time in Tucson. Most of them have graduate or professional degrees and, although working in their chosen field, have roommates too. Those that left within a couple of years of graduation are working successfully in cities like San Diego or in other countries like Australia. Those that have stayed seem to have build a large circle of friends here as well as being involved in other groups/activities around town.
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Old 02-07-2015, 06:02 PM
 
Location: Modesto, Ca
7 posts, read 17,505 times
Reputation: 17
Wow! Thank you guys for all this input! What I'm getting out of this is that I should beware of rent increases when leases expire. I've seen a few places that are month to month on craigslist so I might try for those in a few month's. My problem right now is that I dont have a lot of money saved up to actually move (I'm looking at about 3 or 4 month's) I'm hoping that our limited income will allow us to go ( I still want to despite what I've read here) Hopefully, I can visit the place first. According to what I've seen online my aunt will recieve $733 in SSI in Arizona so I'm hoping I find an understanding renter. One of my cats just died so I only have two now, though Arizona does seem to be really pet friendly.
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