Low Cost of Living, Cheap Rent? Is this too good to be true? (Phoenix: apartments, rental homes)

[fmadsen26]

I've been an avid online searcher since I can remember...actually, I've just become addicted to moving. After college, I moved out to Colorado Springs, now I'm in Richmond, VA. I want to move to Tucson, AZ, but have some questions...

The apartments seem awfully cheap, even the more expensive places (Tuscon Rental Homes) are below $1200/month. Why is this?

Tucson seems to have such rave reviews - low crime, things to do, scenic, etc. What's the catch or is it really just a nice find?

Also, we're going to be job hunting out there. My bf is a chef and I'm in planning/project management/administrative/construction... any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

[fmadsen26]

P.S. When we moved out to Colorado Springs it was much smaller than we thought. It was also very conservative and hard to make friends. We don't like to go out drinking, but like coffee shops, movie theatres, plays, etc... does Tucson have this stuff?

[LordBalfor]

Whether or not the rents you are looking at seem cheap is always relative. I can't say for sure, but I would guess that the Richmond area is more densly populated than Tucson and consequently rents are higher. I also suspect wages are higher in the Richmond area than in Tucson so both of those things factor into the equation. There's nothing really wrong with Tucson. Architecture-wise it won't have the charm of Richmond - nor likely anywhere near the cultural or historical richness - but on the other hand you DO have mountains nearby and great weather for most of the year.

All I can tell you, is visit and see what you think.
I can say for sure that it will be REALLY DIFFERENT from Richmond.
Whether you'll like those differences or not - only YOU can decide.

Ken

[fmadsen26]

Hi thanks for the reply. Just wondering why your moving from seattle? I see in your "location info" that your pursuing AZ. We were considering seattle too...I hear the weather's not that great, but is it really..does the area itself make up for that?

Also, we are moving from VA because of the weather. It's just so humid and the "woods" aren't that pretty..

[azdr0710]

Tucson has plenty of coffee shops (houses) and many seem busy....look for the indie ones....there's a popular "art" house theater called The Loft that plays an excellent mix of films.....the busier time for culture is the winter, of course, and we have an average amount of plays, opera, theater, symphony....nothing consistently outstanding, as Phoenix overshadows Tucson in many ways.....the U of A also has excellent options in the culture area....

close-by, accessible mountains for day trips, hiking, picnics, summer escape....

jobs are relatively low-paying, relative to the rest of the country....the tired old joke is we get paid in sunshine.....

as always, come out and drive around for several days and see if it will work for you....the town is somewhat low-density and spread out....as elmore has pointed out in another thread here in the forum, some visitors may be turned off in one way or another...pros and cons to everywhere, you know

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by fmadsen26

Hi thanks for the reply. Just wondering why your moving from seattle? I see in your "location info" that your pursuing AZ. We were considering seattle too...I hear the weather's not that great, but is it really..does the area itself make up for that?

Also, we are moving from VA because of the weather. It's just so humid and the "woods" aren't that pretty..

We own retirement property about 40 minutes SE of Tucson just off of I-10 (10 minutes west of Benson) and are moving away from Seattle and down to that location mainly because of the weather, but also because of the fact that we are tired of "big city" living and want to live near a smaller town.

The best description I've ever heard about Seattle was" "Living in Seattle is like being married to an extremely beautiful woman... who always has a headache". In other words Seattle IS beautiful, but it's just plain too cool and cloudy for far too much of the year. When the sun is out and it's warm there is NO PLACE in the lower 48 that is more beautiful. The problem is, that happens far less frequently than we'd like. I've lived here for nearly 40 years now and my wife has lived here for nearly her entire life and we've had enough of it. Summers are USUALLY beautiful here but they are wayyyyy too short. Winters are mild and pretty short too. The main problem is that spring drags on FOREVER. It's pretty, but it's just plain too chilly for us for too long a time. Locals here will tell you that summer doesn't really begin in Seattle until AFTER July 4th so long after the rest of the country has warmed up nicely into summerlike weather, we're still cloudy and cool up here.

We're just tired of that.

Ken

[fmadsen26]

Thanks... any other inputs?

I was hoping to find out more about the what Tucson is like...combined with its low cost of living. Are commutes far? Are jobs hard to come by? Is it really spread out and hard to find things.. are there more strip malls than multi-use areas? This information would be really helpful. We found that Colorado Springs was as I described above, (all sprawl and little downtown).

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by fmadsen26

Thanks... any other inputs?

I was hoping to find out more about the what Tucson is like...combined with its low cost of living. Are commutes far? Are jobs hard to come by? Is it really spread out and hard to find things.. are there more strip malls than multi-use areas? This information would be really helpful. We found that Colorado Springs was as I described above, (all sprawl and little downtown).

Commutes can be far, it really depend where you live and where you work. Downtown Tucson is kind of dead - especially at night and on weekends. The nicer parts of the area are generally either to the north or to the east, though some of the areas west of the freeway CAN pretty nice too (ie especially up in the Tucson Mountains). South of downtown is generally not that great. Locals complain a lot about the traffic - but like I said, it's all relative, and in my experience, when I compare it to Seattle Tucson traffic is generally pretty light. Compared to what you are used to, you may find the town is pretty spread out, but it also has a kind of "smaller city" feel to it (at least to us anyway).

Like everywhere else, jobs are no doubt scarce - and wages are generally pretty low in Arizona.

Ken

[sierraAZ]

I happened to look at a rent table in Kiplinger's today and was quite surprised to find out rent is higher even in Detroit! Now that doesn't make ANY sense!

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by sierraAZ

I happened to look at a rent table in Kiplinger's today and was quite surprised to find out rent is higher even in Detroit! Now that doesn't make ANY sense!

You're kidding!
Really?

That is a surprise - even considering the higher density in Detroit.

Ken