Needing to chose between Phoenix or Tucson -50yo professional and 24yo son. [Part 2] (employment, retired)

[Adamson865]

You really don't need to create a new thread every time. Just keep the original one going.

[grmi66]

If your client base is upper income educated parents, you'll want to focus on the Catalina Foothills & Oro Valley areas in Tucson. What I've noticed in looking for a therapist for a disabled adult family member is that certain fields may have 1-2 people specializing in an area, whereas up in the Phoenix area there are 20. Look up your competition and then look up demographics to see what the pool of potential clients looks like. In Tucson you could be one of 3 in a pool of 10,000 potential clients as opposed to Phoenix where you could be one of 10 in a pool of 20,000 clients.

Also, anecdotally I've been told that new builds in the Tucson area are slightly more expensive and take more time due to the lack of labor. Maybe have your son call a few places in Phoenix and in Tucson to see how desperate each city is for labor.

As for visiting friends, depending on where they live it's generally a 90 minute drive up to Phoenix on the weekends. Our judge of distance is that from our house in Oro Valley we can get to the IKEA store in 70 minutes and to Sky Harbor airport in 90 minutes.

[DetroitN8V]

Lots of cons for Tucson but what don't you like about Phoenix? That sounds like the obvious choice.

[Mike from back east]

Merged two threads into one to keep it all in one place.

[WilmaWildcat]

There is a larger population in Phoenix, but the last data I saw on this topic, they did not have a larger educated population. Tucson was #44 on the national list, and Phoenix was about #66 or so on the list. This was for percent college degrees.

We lived in Sam Hughes, and that is where I would like to live again if we ever moved back. Also around the Arizona Inn and El Encanto neighborhood. We'd need some cash to live there, and we have just about got it. Best of luck.

[recycled]

spumoni, you mentioned liking the University West neighborhood. Yes, it is "artsy" looking and adjacent to the 4th Ave shopping & entertainment area. However, it is also close to 3 or 4 grade level railroad crossings, which require the train locomotives to sound their (very loud) warning horns. 30 to 40 freight trains pass through Tucson in each direction every day (including many at night). That is a lot of train horns blasting in University West neighborhood. Noise is something you need to be aware of in looking for a place to live in Tucson.

[spumoni]

Wow, I didn't realize that, thank you!

[remco67]

Grew up in tucson moving back in a couple months. I much prefer Tucson to Phoenix. Tucson has many areas that still maintain a small college town feel even though it really isn't anymore. I also hate with a passion having to use all the highways to get around Phoenix. And to me there is nothing like getting up in the morning and sitting outside with my coffee and watching the sun come up over those mountains. As for house prices they are high everywhere and higher in Phoenix. I think of my best friend who brought his Avondale home for about 350 5 years ago and now valued at about 700k. I also believe that we are likely going to head into a period of recession and housing price declines and Tucson as a town with far less good jobs than Phoenix is much more likely to have a greater decline in House prices. So personally plan to rent something cheap(or as cheap as you can get these days) and wait a couple years to buy.

Not gay and dont really know anything about the gay scene today but back when i was at the UofA I hung out with the hippy and artistic types and there seemed to be a decent amount of gay people around. I dont imagine you would have much difficulty.

[trailtramp]

If you are gay and looking to meet friends, etc, central Tucson will have much better opportunities to be social. The foothills and OV are relatively distant from where the more liberal socializing, especially the gay community happens.

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by trailtramp

If you are gay and looking to meet friends, etc, central Tucson will have much better opportunities to be social. The foothills and OV are relatively distant from where the more liberal socializing, especially the gay community happens.

Where did he say he was liberal or seeking "liberal socializing"?