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Thank you MN-Born-n-Raised! I agree with everything you say and we talk a lot about how we love festival and that we now spend 10 to 20 minutes in the car going to a store in MN (in suburban neighborhood) when it's stop and go rather than 20 minutes at 50 MPH. We know the drive wouldn't bother us at first but what about 2 or 3 months (or years) down the road? All of these are food for thought and consideration. We love SCG and discuss whether, since it's already built out, would it be a more "closed" society whereas a newer community would be more likely to be welcoming to new comers. We also wonder about the energy efficiency of the "older" homes. (Can you believe we would consider a home built no more than 10 or 15 years ago as being "old"?!)
We bought in the original Sun City, mostly for the rec centers and the lower taxes/HOA. We had the ability to do most of the construction work ourselves and took this house down to the studs, reinsulated, rewired, re everything and have the kitchen I have always wanted. A project like this is not for the weak or the unskilled and we wanted a project house. If we could not do the work then we would have bought a newer home in Trilogy/Vistancia. I do love the newer homes, but the $225 a month HOA fee turned me off. I guess you have to like the 60's style architecture because this development is quirky for sure. We do love mid century modern sooooo here we are lol. My neighbors are and were very welcoming. We see younger retirees coming every day.
Sun City Grand is nice and we looked at it before buying here, but it was a sea of beige, the floor plans are dated and we would have wanted to gut that home as well. This was a better buy for us. You may want to drive up and look at Vistancia/Trilogy.
Oh wow.. no one mentioned Corte Bella. I lived in Corte Bella for a good 5 years. Corte Bella is a 1600 home gated country club community in Sun City West. (off Deer Valley Rd.) Built in 2004 -06 It's beautiful has it's own golf course, 3 restaurants, club house, beautiful pool area, tons of activities and a younger retired group of people.(45 and up) The homes are a higher level than other retirement areas. (The builder was Pulte). In the basic homes they have corian counters, maple cabinets, tile flooring and great layouts. Most homeowners upgraded their homes and you probably can get a beautiful home for a reasonable price. It's a 3 to 5 minute drive to Bell Rd and anywhere else you need to go. (Dell Webb Hospital) etc.
Oh wow.. no one mentioned Corte Bella. I lived in Corte Bella for a good 5 years. Corte Bella is a 1600 home gated country club community in Sun City West. (off Deer Valley Rd.) Built in 2004 -06 It's beautiful has it's own golf course, 3 restaurants, club house, beautiful pool area, tons of activities and a younger retired group of people.(45 and up) The homes are a higher level than other retirement areas. (The builder was Pulte). In the basic homes they have corian counters, maple cabinets, tile flooring and great layouts. Most homeowners upgraded their homes and you probably can get a beautiful home for a reasonable price. It's a 3 to 5 minute drive to Bell Rd and anywhere else you need to go. (Dell Webb Hospital) etc.
I like the homes in Corta Bella. Very quiet, but lovely little spot here.
We've been to all of the Sun City's and out of all of them were most impressed with Festival and it's facilities/activities.
We've also been to Pebble Creek,Verrado (very nice but a bit out there) and really liked Pebble Creek. The drawback to Pebble Creek is Luke AFB and the jet noise. You really need to spend a few days during the week out there to decide if it's tolerable for you.
If I wanted quiet it'd be Festival in a heartbeat. If I could tolerate the jets it'd be a toss up between Pebble Creek and Festival probably distilled down to cost to own in each.
Tucson Bound but on the way we had planned to stop at several communities. Frankly we ran out of time but did stop at Meritage Homes Province. As we drove off I-10 toward Maricopa we thought the drive was unattractive and wondered how could anything look nice out here in the middle of the desert. As we drove into Maricopa our thoughts did not change much although we liked to see the shopping/dining opportunities.
Driving into the gated community we were very impressed with all the water in the development. Everywhere we looked approaching the Recreation and Sales centers you could see lakes (although the water was a bit too colored for my liking).
Province is not built around a golf course but duffers can find their divit making opportunities across the street. After checking in at Province we were hungry for some lunch and the receptionist recommended we go to the golf club and eat at "The Duke". Good service, good food, casual atmosphere. Now on to see some houses.
I think Meritage is one of the very good builders and their models show it. Foam insulation and quality materials. They either have a special eye for energy efficiency or maybe they're just better at selling it than most other builders. Our sales guy was very pleasant but not in any way pushy. As we toured the models we thought the pricing was very good even with all the options needed to turn the "...starts at" into a real livable house. One could get a home of 1800 sq. ft. dressed very nicely for the mid $200k range.
We became pinched for time so decided to cut out our planned visits to the other Meritage community (Mission Royale) and Robson Ranch and head straight for Saddlebrooke Ranch in Oracle. As we drove away our thoughts stayed on Province. Really nicely built homes, good value, some very attractive recreation facilities (my wife was completely awed by the quilting facility and the furnished sewing machines which were Berninas (these are the Mercedes of sewing and costs thousands of thousands of dollars)! However, we thought the community was just too far out in the middle of nowhere. Funny we didn't have that feeling at Festival even though it's a 10 mile drive to shopping. Perhaps because Maricopa is located down in the valley far from any mountains. The wind and dust was blowing even though the temperature was only about 100 that afternoon. (Can you believe a Minnesotan would say temperature is only 100 degrees?!).
About cutting visits to the other communities: We thought these facilities located in the floor of the valley were not gong to be to our liking even though they may be very well constructed and with nice amenities. Somehow seeing mountains at a reasonably close range is a better fit for us. That was certainly the case for what I think is the most beautiful setting of any community we visited which we found after our arrival in the Tucson area. I'll detail that visit in the Tucson area of thee pages. It'll be titled "Our Tucson Retirement Visits" and I'm going there now to write it down if you wish to follow this young geezer's adventures.
Don't forget to check out Green Valley, just south of Tucson. Basically a retirement city, may fit your bill.
Final visit in the Phoenix area: Sun City Anthem at Merrill Ranch was our home for two nights. We arrived on Thursday and spent some time going through the models. Then Friday we decided we had seen enough and wanted to have a second look at Festival. It's about a 2 hour drive but having the whole day that journey didn't seem to be too much. Festival was becoming our favorite spot in all the communities (both Phoenix and Tucson areas). Truth be told we were not that impressed with the entrance to Festival this time. It had been one of our very first stops on this week long journey and, given our tours of several locations since, the shine had somewhat worn. Still it is very nice and the people we met on this short visit continued to be some of the friendliest anywhere. Back to Anthem to rest and pack.
Anthem is a typical Del Webb development. Nice water features at entrance, mostly mesquite trees lining the boulevard. Across the street is the all-age development for families which include a water park (we were surprised that given a hot day, no school and yet there was no one in that park). Facilities at Anthem are very nice. Club house with lots of activities, ASU learning center, gorgeous pool, nice health club facilities. But the real attraction would come the next morning prior to our departure.
We still had a few hours to pass before leaving for Sky Harbor Saturday morning and my wife needed an item from the store. Here's a real plus of Anthem: Shopping and dining is only a 5 minute golf car ride away! There's a very nice Safeway complete with Starbucks (we're serious about coffee), a deli, bank, etc. On either side of this anchor store there is a Chinese and Italian restaurant. How convenient is that?! Made us think again about the 15 or 20 minute drive from Festival to the nearest store.
We've never really considered Anthem as a contender for our final home (which, I remind readers, is at least 2 years off). On our 3 hour flight (from hell, thanks to a screaming young kid and a mother who doesn't have a clue!) we started comparing Anthem to other communities. It's pricing is about $20k less, it's convenience to shopping is great, and the people we met in our short visit were very friendly. There was a downside or two.
We've stayed at two other communities in the past week: Festival in Buckeye and Saddlebrooke Ranch in Oracle plus visits in and around Phoenix and Tucson. Anthem seemed warmer. Sitting on the patio one morning we were busy swatting flies. Also that morning there was a distinct odor of cow manure in the air. We kept our patio sliding door closed because of it. When we inquired about the possibility of cows nearby we were told once or twice a year if the wind is right you might get some odor or perhaps they were using manure to fertilize the golf course. We don't really know if it's a recurring problem, once in a great while or were we just imagining things? We took another look at models then off to the airport.
What a trip it's been! I want to spend a few days and rethink the experience. I will say we don't know where we would finally settle. Our top two spots were Festival in the Phoenix area and Quail Creek in Green Valley south of Tucson (our visits to the Tucson area are reviewed on that section of this forum). I want to emphasize the use of the word "were" in the previous sentence. Since the trip we've been reconsidering several communities for various reasons. I will outline those thoughts in a review soon.
I also continue to encourage your thoughts and experiences at AZ retirement communities. This forum and the people who participate in it are valuable resources for those who may also be considering a major life move. Thank you for the great help you continue to give.
My wife Chris and I made a similar trip to Arizona from Illinois last October. We spent nights at CantaMia, Festival and Saddlebrook Ranch. And like you we visited many other communities. I would be interested to speak with you in order to share some opinions, experiences, etc. If this is something you would like to do please write back and lets schedule a talk at your convenience. Not sure how to send a private messages to exchange phone numbers but we'll figure it out. Thanks for your posts and best of luck. Paul
Just click on GeneR's name at the left side of his post.
Drop down menu appears and you click on "send a direct message" and woo hoo ! you are connected !
What's most important? Is it the quality of the build? Is it community facilities? What about convenience to shopping or medical care? Finally, why is it that our community visits seemed to provide few answers and raise more questions?
As described earlier in these pages (and on the Tucson side of this forum) we spent a week on a whirlwind tour of retirement communities. (Incidentally, I now prefer calling them "age-restricted communities). We have our favorites and we found a few disappointments. These are outlined above so I won't repeat here but I wanted to share our final thoughts on choice.
After our return to Minnesota we started crunching numbers. Although we are at least 2 years (probably 3) away from making a move to Arizona we are considering the affordability of each community. In line with this we are narrowing our choices down to those areas that are USDA mortgage eligible.
My wife Joan worked several years in the mortgage business. She built this business from the ground up. Because of this we know the choices available to home buyers. First, if you have a pile of cash from selling your home, your 401k or IRA do you want to put it in real estate? We don't have a "pile" of cash but we think it's a better choice to use someone else's money to purchase a home. Today you can borrow at somewhere around 4%. In a well run mutual fund you can easily get a better return on your money. I'm not a financial advisor and these are personal opinions but if I can borrow at 4% (or 5 or 6) and I can invest at 8, 10 or 12% wouldn't it make sense to do that? Now back to mortgage options.
You've probably had experience with a conventional mortgage. Put 20% down and give the bank a mortgage on your property for the balance of the purchase price. If you don't put 20% down you will pay mortgage insurance which can add one or two hundred dollars to your monthly payment. You not only have to qualify for the mortgage loan but you have to pass qualifications from the mortgage insurance company.
Then there's FHA loans. All it takes is 3-and-a-half percent down with an FHA loan. You will pay an insurance premium just like on a conventional mortgage.
The Veteran's Administration has a loan guarantee program also. This is the specialty of my wife's business. A qualified vet can borrow 100% of the purchase price and not pay monthly mortgage insurance. There are some great benefits of this program and I won't outline them here but If I were a vet I would no doubt go in this direction.
Our main consideration is the USDA mortgage loan. Yes, that's the U.S. Department of Agriculture. How do they fit into the mortgage picture? The department of agriculture is assisting rural areas to develop housing. They guarantee home loans just like the VA. The trick is you have to be buying in a USDA eligible area. Metro areas of Phoenix and Tucson do NOT qualify. But areas just outside these cities do. You can see if your property would qualify by visiting their web site. Just Bing (or Google) USDA Mortgage for further information. You can borrow up to 100% of the purchase price and there's NO mortgage insurance premium.
Back to our choices; We like Del Webb and Robson communities above all. Our favorites are Festival in Buckeye although convenience to shopping and medical care is a huge issue here. For best buy we think Sun City Anthem at Merrill Ranch is best. We also like Robson Ranch in Eloy but it is NOT USDA eligible.
Where will we end up. Today our choice is Festival but tomorrow it may be Quail Creek south of Tucson. When the time comes it may be neither. We continue to examine the facts, the choices, the strengths and weaknesses of each community. In this spirit I want to encourage you to share your thoughts, your experiences, and your judgements on these pages. Information is good for us all and this site is a GREAT resource!
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GeneR. Thanks for your interesting journal
