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My wife and I are looking at relocating in a sunbelt state. We narrowed it to Arizona (Phoenix) and Florida (Tampa). Due to the present state of the economy, we cannot afford to stay unemployed for very long.
Each state has been battered and we're seeking opinions on which state will rebound the earliest.
Please provide the reasons for your choice (i.e. jobs, education, real estate.....)
Florida starts out with an unemployment rate higher than AZ. People were leaving FL for NC/SC/GA even before the bust - kind of like Californians leaving.
It's going to be a year before we can expect any recovery in growth/construction in AZ and that is iffy. So no job till then. Things could be cooking by end 2012. Can you wait until then?
What bothers me about Arizonans is they complain about a lack of diversification of our industry yet they don't want to do the types of things that will lead to that type of diversification. In short, if you want to create high paying white collar jobs, then you need to do things to lure those types of people and companies. We don't want to eliminate the state income tax. People who earn high wages don't mind paying higher property taxes because they will save more on income tax. We don't invest enough in our schools. White collar people want to send their kids to high powered schools not just very good schools but reputable ie "it will get my kid into an Ivy League university" type of school. Yes, I'm aware our schools don't deserve the bad reputation it often receives, at the same time, we could clearly do better. We really don't have the type of public schools that rank among Newsweek's top 100 public schools in the country. I don't even know if we have one of those in the Phoenix area? I recall Dallas have 4 or 5 and even Little Rock having one. I remember Oklahoma City initiated a highly academic and reknown math and science school in the late 1980's yet we still have yet to create one of those. I think we have one but I haven't heard great things about it and it's certainly not among the top 5-10 schools in the metro. There are a lot of other tax breaks that states like Texas are providing to lure companies that we aren't doing. So when people whine about our lack of diversification, I just tune them out because they don't really want to do the things necessary to achieve that.
I think it depends on what you do, what your job experience is, as to which state will be better. There are decent jobs to be had in both Phoenix and Tampa. While there are similarities between the cities, there are also differences.
Cant speak for Florida, but Arizona has some really serious issues that are often overlooked by people in other regions of the country that want to move here and think its some kind of Eden or something. First, the education is HORRIBLE (Arizona ranks dead last--50th--in education in graduation rates, spending per pupil and ACT/SAT scores). You do not want to send your kids to schools out here. No education means a horrible job market and an unbalanced economy (even in 'boom' times) that relies on cheap labor in economic sensitive industries: construction, retail and hospitality. A meager job market and many low paying jobs leads to dirt poor cheap housing--it aint as attractive as it looks. And dont even get me started on the severe illegal immigration problem. Trust me....on the surface, Arizona may look appealing. But once a person has been here for a while, they see otherwise. Arizona is now starting to lose its young people to other states where they can find better jobs and have a future.
I know nothing about Florida's plans for recovery, but I would put my money that they recover faster than we do, even if its a pretty close race... but since we are comparing the whole STATE and not just 2 cities, I would think they have more potential. Phoenix is the only major city in AZ, but Florida has several larger cities that are as big or bigger than our 2nd largest city of Tucson. Those medium cities have more room to grow over the long haul while Phoenix is too big for its own good.
Florida also competes on the same retirement front with golf courses, no snow, PLUS they have wealthy yacht owners, legitimate tourist traps like Orlando & Key West, Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, also the major cruise hubs and the same seasonal snowbird thing. In short they have everything we do and more. Outside of moving here for "dry heat" and maybe an affection for all things brown and an absence of water, I'm not sure why one would choose Phx over any affordable city in Florida.
and you think the Mexi-racists are bad here? Try South Florida. It's nuts.
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