Our Retirement Community Visit, Phoenix-Phase III (lease, theater, live)

[Dewey59]

Congrats Gene... I have followed your adventure with great interest, as it in many ways mirrored mine. It would be interesting for you to follow up with a post in 6 months to a year to see how happy you are with your decision. Unless, of course, if you do become the "go to realtor" for Festival - in which case, you might have a tinge of bias. ;-)

Thanks again for sharing your adventure! I'm sure it helped a lot of others who are looking. I truly believe you can't go wrong with any of the Sun Cities.... just a matter of finding the right fit for your own tastes and needs.

[cekkk]

I hope the OP finds what they're looking for and enjoy a new setting. But Boy, it's hot in the Valley. Often. For months.

Originally Posted by ILikeEveryone

We saw 107 in Sun City at Bell Rec yesterday. But it's a dry heat.
.

So's an oven!

My DW has been cold since we moved to this secluded mountain paradise 17 years ago. She's not skinny, but low body fat at about 100#. So, having promised her if she'd give me a year or two here back in '99, we'd move to a warmer clime, I owe it to her to bite the bullet and head to AZ. My bad. We had two daughters and their families in the Phoenix area for several years, and we snow birded there a few years. And had our share of visits in the summer months. It is the reciprocal of Barrow, AK, weather-wise.

Oops! Just looked at the weather there. It's 35F. It was 29 here this morning. And Sunday we had a touch of snow. After the sleet. Which followed the hail.

So we're going to look seriously at areas outside of, but close to Tucson. It's a bit cooler by about 4 degrees F, and it's smaller. Larger than I'd like, but less than a third the size of metro Phoenix.

And we are definite that the over 55 communities are not for us. I wish they were, it would make the hunt far easier.

[Edwals]

GeneR,

Thanks for all the info on AZ. We are moving soon to AZ and were wondering who your realtors were?
It sounds like you liked them a lot.

We are looking for a golf community as we do play golf. What were your thoughts on Quail Creek? After reading your posts we are now considering Festival also. How do you like it now that you are a resident? We want to rent for awhile and take our time looking around.

[Colt AZ]

Originally Posted by ILikeEveryone

But it's a dry heat.

Originally Posted by cekkk

So's an oven!

So's a BLAST FURNACE!

[VikingFan]

Cmon GeneR we need an update��

[cmw0829]

Hmm...the move was to take place in mid-June, so Gene and his wife should have been here for two months. I would love to hear an update too.

After two years in the Valley of the Sun (three summers), we New Englanders are seriously considering a move back East - somewhere between MA and NC. Oh my, the heat is just too much for us. We will start our own version of Gene's search next month and hope to employ the same careful search techniques that Gene described for us.

[dirtydan57]

Originally Posted by cmw0829

Hmm...the move was to take place in mid-June, so Gene and his wife should have been here for two months. I would love to hear an update too.

After two years in the Valley of the Sun (three summers), we New Englanders are seriously considering a move back East - somewhere between MA and NC. Oh my, the heat is just too much for us. We will start our own version of Gene's search next month and hope to employ the same careful search techniques that Gene described for us.

I get the impression this happens frequently. I'm curious, did you guys try it out before moving, thought it was great, then after a few years changed your minds? Or did you just pack up and move?

Thanks.

[GeneR]

Originally Posted by VikingFan

Cmon GeneR we need an update��

I’ve been meaning to revisit this topic with the update on our move to Sun City Festival in Buckeye and suspect that even this will take more than this entry. But, let’s start with summer heat.

On our arrival in mid-June the area was under an ‘extreme heat’ warning. High temperatures were anywhere from 113 to 116 degrees with nighttime cooling at around 100. As an aside, today’s high temperature will be just under 100 degrees. Amazing how such a temperature can seem “mild”! Now about that extreme heat period.

One quickly learns that if you have any activities you’d best be doing them at sun up. We have a toy poodle so our morning walks started around 5. Then after that I’d leave the dog and take a longer walk around the community concluding no later than 7. Even then I’d be dripping sweat. Since we had just moved in there was lots of inside work to be done as we unpacked our boxes and put things away. That consumed most of the day of about 3 weeks as we shuffled ’stuff’ from one place to another. Of course we would take regular breaks and spend some time at this communities gorgeous pool almost daily. Also in our first week our landscaping contractor and crew were outside from about 6 in the morning till about 2 in the afternoon. More on that later. After the sun dropped below the horizon and the sidewalks started cooling a bit it was back out with the dog for a shorter walk.

One of the unknowns for us as we made a decision to move to AZ from MN was “how much will our utilities cost?”. I’ll break our short experience down now. Remember, we have a newly constructed home with the latest in build technology. Our house is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath with a den. Total air conditioned living space of 1859 sq. ft. We set our thermometer at 76 degrees from about 6PM to 11AM and 78 during the heat of the afternoon. We also have about half a dozen low voltage landscape lights which are on for about 5 hours every night.

I find I’m being more conscious of my water and electric use than I was back in MN. Still, our second electric bill (APS) came in at just under $300. Our Buckeye water/sewer/garbage bill for our 2nd month came in at just over $140. I attended a seminar (sales presentation) by Sun Valley Solar. We have a neighbor who leases their 18 panel system and their total electric bill (to APS and Sun Valley for the lease) is about $120. We are wanting to wait until next summer before we make a decision on solar. Here’s the short consideration; Pay almost $300 a month for the hot summer months (maybe 3 or 4) then see electric costs drop to under $100(?) a month for the cooler period or pay about $120 a month every month for 20 years? Then there’s the possibility of buying a system outright for somewhere around $16,000 to $18,000. It’s a numbers game and we don’t have sufficient information to make a decision at this time. Solar can impact appraised value and salability of a property. I’ll have to delve into that as a return on investment as part of a decision (lord, I cringe even thinking about ever selling and having to move again!).

A final utility note: our gas bill is less than $20 for these summer months. We have gas stove and a tankless water heater. We know as the electric bill decreases during the winter months the gas bill will likely increase as we make use of the furnace.

Sun City Festival has certain landscaping requirements. I won’t detail those but there are minimum plant requirements. We added paver extensions to our back patio, paved our side patio and created a from patio area as an extension from our paved drive and front walk-ways. We added mounds and boulders in addition to the various plantings. Cost of our landscaping was $13,500. I think you could meet minimums by spending just under 10-large but we wanted a little extra. We have a neighbor who spent $35,000 on theirs. That included pergolas over a back deck, a water feature and an outdoor kitchen. So, as you can see you can get deep into it our do as little as requirements dictate. I don’t think you could do it for under $8,500. To give you an idea of what Festival landscaping looks like I recommend using Google Earth and take a look from the sky. Then go to other communities and see if you can tell the difference. I find Festival is much ‘greener’ than most other communities in the state. Mostly due to tree and large plant requirements. This was another selling point for us.

So, here we are, in Festival. Sometimes when Joan (my wife) and I are floating in the pool, looking at the palm trees swaying in the gentle desert breeze we’ll say to each other “we actually LIVE here!”. Yes, we love it. I’ll stop for now. Pretty soon I’ll update on the topic of living in Festival, revisiting some of the reasons we chose this community over the other great choices in this state. I’ll also detail what it’s like living “out there” as our realtors referred to the community (they live in Sun City). Sometimes we think “I wish it were closer to shopping” so just know that there are some tradeoffs. But, that’s for another time and another entry. Until then...

[gbpakrfan]

Hey, Gene. Sounds like you're enjoying life "way out there". As you know, we're also "way out there", just in a different direction.

I just wanted to comment on your water/sewer/trash bill of over $140. Is that for one month or two? Just wondering because our water/sewer bill has always been in the $76 per month range for the first year here (we just had our one year moving anniversary last week) and our trash is set at $17 per month by the Town of Florence. That's a total of about $93 per month.

Anyway, "Go Pack"...(and no, I don't mean pack up and move again).

[MalteseJane]

You cannot really compare utilities. All depends on your usage. Two years ago Buckeye raised the price of the water here in Sun City Festival. Now I have a HUGE water bill. But I also have an oversized yard with a lot of plants. It also depends how many times a week your irrigation comes on and for how long. I am seriously considering some changes in our landscaping. Starting by putting a boulder in the place of a small peach tree that has produced peaches only once in 8 years. Lol !
We have solar, 33 panels who cover us 100%. We took a prepaid lease so we don't have monthly payments. Personally, if you cannot buy the system or prepay the lease I would not do it.

gbpakrfan : garbage pick up and recycling here is 30.89$
Sewer depends on how much water you use. I pay right now 46.86$